


I Am Nobody's Pet

by dreaming_wide_awake



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Vampire, F/F, First two chapters are a repost, More Relationships to be added, More tags to be added, Mostly funny, Some angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2018-10-06 08:11:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 29,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10330127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreaming_wide_awake/pseuds/dreaming_wide_awake
Summary: Clarke has lost a bet with her friends and has to go and steal a sword from the Woods family crypt. Legend has it that Alexandria Woods wakes from her tomb every night to search for her lost love. But urban legends aren't true, right?orThe first two chapters were posted as part of my ClexaWeek series, but reposting as a separate fic as people seemed to want it continued.





	1. Chapter 1

Clarke shuddered as she made her way through the graveyard to the Woods family crypt. There was an urban legend that had been going around the city for as long as Clarke could remember, that said that Alexandria Woods, the daughter of the Woods family, was entombed in the crypt but would wake every night and scour the graveyard for her lost love.

She had been surprised to find out that her grandparents also knew about it which meant that it was an old legend as her grandparents had lived in Polis before it technically became a city. Legend had it that Alexandria’s parents had disapproved of her relationship with a girl who was from a family who were well below their social standing, and like all urban legends it had a grisly end.

Clarke had never really bought into the legend, unlike some of the kids she’d gone to school with who had spent many a late night around the graveyard trying to spot Alexandria. It was one of a few legends that went around about the Woods family, another was that they were an ancient family of Vampires, Clarke didn’t buy into that one either.

As she approached the crypt she remembered why she was there. She’d lost a bet with Raven and their friends, the loser had to enter the Woods family crypt and steal something that was rumoured to be there. There was apparently a large stone box which was underneath the coffin in the centre of the crypt, in the box was a sword. Alexandria’s sword, which her parents had apparently used to behead her lover. Grisly end.

Clarke looked around her as she walked towards the steal door of the crypt, the street lights which illuminated the paths which lead through the graveyard did nothing to help calm her nerves as they only created darker shadows.

“Come on Clarke,” she said, shaking her head a little, “get your shit together.”

With a deep breath, Clarke pushed down the handle on the door of the crypt, only mildly surprised when it actually opened, it seemed like a badly kept city secret that the Woods family crypt was never locked.

“Of course it’s never locked,” Clarke said to herself as she pulled the small torch from her pocket, “because nobody would ever be stupid enough to go in here.”

Clarke felt a shiver run right through her body as she walked into the crypt, shining the torch light around the space. She saw candle holders on the walls, which still had candles in them, all of which had been lit at some point. The cobwebs let Clarke know they hadn’t been lit for a long time, she couldn’t help but wonder when the last time was that someone had been here.

There was a large ornate stone coffin in the centre of the room, and 9 plaques on the wall, which Clarke knew were covers for the spaces where other coffins were. As she walked through the doorway she could see a single rose sitting on the top of the coffin, Clarke furrowed her brow as she looked at it, it looked real, but she knew it couldn’t be. Roses don’t live that long without water, and from the undisturbed dust on the top of the coffin Clarke knew that it hadn’t been placed there recently. It looked like there was even dust on top of the rose itself, which made the fact that it looked like it had been placed there only hours earlier even more strange.

Clarke shook her head a little as she snapped her attention away from the rose, remembering she was there to do one thing and then she could leave. She could go back to her apartment where her friends were waiting for her. Crouching down next to the coffin she could see the large stone box. She tried to lift the lid of it, the torch now in her mouth, but she just couldn’t get a grip on the lid. So, she stood back up and walked over to the candles on the wall, taking the lighter out of her pocket, before lighting them. Rather than put the torch back in her pocket she put it on top of the coffin, she was sure that whoever was in there wouldn’t mind, though she was pretty sure the person in the coffin was none other than Alexandria Woods.

After a few more moments, fiddling around with the lid of the stone box, she finally got it open. She stood up quickly and grabbed the torch. As her fingers reached the torch she also touched the rose, finding out pretty quickly that it wasn’t real at all, but was made out of stone.

“Wow…” she said, completely distracted by how real the rose looked, “that’s some good craftsmanship right there.”

She again touched the rose, realising that it wasn’t simply stuck on the top of the coffin lid, it moved. She stood there thinking about why there would be a rose that moved, like a switch, on top of a coffin. She remembered, when she was younger, she had read a book about some of the things people would put on coffins back in the olden days. She recalled that some people would have a lever in their coffin which, when pulled, would raise a flag above ground, just to let people know they weren’t actually dead. She figured that the rose was probably something similar.

Shrugging her shoulders, she crouched back down, reaching into the stone box and taking out the sword, before standing up and walking back towards the door. Before she could reach the door, and therefore the outside world, a gust of wind came from nowhere and the door slammed closed.

“What the hell.” Clarke said.

“The candles were a nice touch.” A female voice said from behind her.

Clarke turned in the direction of the voice, stumbling backwards into the door as she saw a brunette with sparkling green eyes leaning against the now open coffin, a brunette who hadn’t been there just seconds earlier.

“Jesus Christ.” Clarke said, putting her free hand on her chest as she tried to calm her heartrate.

“It’s Alexandria Woods, actually,” the brunette replied, a hint of a smirk on her lips, “but you can call me Lexa.”

“Are you for real right now?” Clarke asked, her brow furrowed as she looked around the crypt, “is there a hidden camera in here? Is this some kind of practical joke.”

“Am I… for real?” Lexa asked, her head tilted in confusion as she looked at the blonde, “I assure you, I am very real.”

“No,” Clarke said, shaking her head, “that isn’t what I meant, I… it’s a figure of speech, like saying is this a joke.”

“Then that term in that sentence would be redundant, as you then went on to ask if this was some kind of joke.” Lexa stated, still clearly not any less confused.

“I need to get out of here.” Clarke said, turning back around and running her hand over the door, where the handle should be.

“It does not open from the inside.” Lexa said as she watched the blonde.

“What’s the use of a door that doesn’t open from the inside?” The blonde asked, looking over her shoulder at the brunette, “how am I supposed to get out?”

“I assure you, what is in here was never supposed to get out.” Lexa replied.

Clarke turned back and looked at Lexa, the brunette still looking at her with an almost confused look on her face, her brow furrowed ever so slightly. Clarke couldn’t help but think she looked like a confused puppy.

“If you’re Alexandria Woods…” Clarke started to say.

“Lexa.” Lexa said, interrupting her.

“Okay, if you’re Lexa Woods,” Clarke said, “how are you here? You died about 100 years ago.”

“Technically, I died long before that.” Lexa replied with a small quirk of her eyebrow, her lips pulling into a small smile.

As Lexa smiled, Clarke swallowed, hard. The candle light in the crypt revealed the brunette’s teeth, unnaturally white, with extended canines.

“Nope,” Clarke said, shaking her head as she turned back to the door, “this is not happening. I must have fallen and hit my head on something, passed out. I’m imagining all this, time to wake up Clarke…”

She softly knocked her head against the steal door, not hard enough to do any damage.

“Do you often talk to yourself?” Lexa asked.

“Talking to myself makes more sense than talking to you.” Clarke said, turning to look back at the brunette, literally jumping when she saw that Lexa was no longer standing next to her coffin, but was in fact standing right next to her, head tilted to one side again as she looked at her.

“You are afraid of me.” Lexa said, lifting her hand and softly trailing one finger down Clarke’s cheek.

“Jesus, your hands are cold,” Clarke said, backing away from Lexa, “and I wouldn’t say I’m afraid of you, just… wary. If you’re really here, and this is really happening, then you’re…”

“Say it, Clarke.” Lexa said, stepping closer to the blonde, who simply kept backing away from Lexa, moving around the crypt.

“You’re dead.” Clarke said, finally remembering the sword she still held in her hand, she held it up, pointing it at Lexa, “and how do you know my name?”

“You said it when you were talking to yourself,” Lexa replied, a hint of amusement in her voice as Clarke kept the sword pointed at her, “and you were not going to say dead, what were you going to say?”

“Va-vampire.” Clarke stuttered.

“What gave it away?” Lexa asked, her lips pulling up into another smirk, “the ice-cold touch, or the pointy teeth?”

“I really need to get out of here before I become dinner.” Clarke said, rushing back over to the door.

“You are safe.” Lexa said, rolling her eyes slightly as she walked over to her coffin and closed the lid, easily lifting herself up onto it before she lay down, her hands clasped over her stomach as she crossed her feet at the ankle and looked up at the roof of the crypt.

“Are you trying to tell me you’re like Edward from Twilight and don’t drink human blood?” Clarke asked as she turned and looked back at Lexa.

“What is Twilight and who is Edward?” Lexa asked, her brow furrowed again as she tilted her head back to look at Clarke.

“Right,” Clarke said with a nod, “you haven’t a clue what I’m talking about, you’ve been in a coffin for 100 years. Twilight is a book series, about a human girl and a Vampire boy who fall in love, like some tragic love story. Edward and his Vampire family don’t drink human blood, they survive on animal blood.”

“That is not advisable.” Lexa said, scrunching her face up in disgust.

Clarke couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped her at Lexa’s reaction.

“Are you talking about the Vampire and the human falling in love, or the animal blood?” Clarke asked as she moved from the door to the side of the room, before sitting down on the floor, her back resting against the wall, as she put the sword down on the floor next to her, still within reach if she needed it.

She was sure it wouldn’t make any difference how close the sword was if Lexa decided that she was hungry.

“Both,” Lexa replied, “animal blood does not contain everything that human blood does, and falling in love with a human only ever ends in death, one way or another.”

“Sounds like you’re talking from experience.” Clarke said.

“A predator and their prey can never peacefully live alongside one another,” Lexa said, her voice suddenly very small, “no matter the care you have for them, there is always the temptation.”

“Your lover…” Clarke said, causing Lexa to turn her head quickly and look at her.

“What do you know of my lover?” Lexa asked, her tone sending a shiver through Clarke.

“People talk about you falling in love with someone your family didn’t approve of,” Clarke said, “and they killed her before you died… which I know obviously isn’t true, because you’re… well, here.”

“Her name was Costia.” Lexa said, looking back up at the ceiling, “she worked in the kitchens. I would often find her in the library during the day when the house was quiet. She would spend hours reading. She had not wanted to work in the kitchens, but her family owed my family a debt, her parents used her as payment. She knew what I was, but she never saw me as a monster the way others did…”

Clarke couldn’t believe that she actually felt sorry for Lexa, she felt sorry for a Vampire who’d had their heart broken. She wasn’t even sure that was entirely accurate, as Vampire’s are already dead so they had no beating heart to break.

“We were going to leave together,” Lexa continued, “but then my family found out what was happening between us. They gave me a choice, kill her or face my punishment.”

“So, they killed her and then locked you in that coffin?” Clarke asked.

“They killed her in here, by the door,” Lexa said, “forcing me to watch, knowing that I could not save her. Then they trapped me in the coffin, yes.”

“That’s pretty fucked up…” Clarke said, shaking her head as she sighed, her choice of words causing Lexa to look at her yet again with a confused look on her face, which caused Clarke to laugh a little, “I’m not even going to try and explain that one.”

At that moment, Clarke’s phone started to ring, which caused Lexa to jump from the top of the coffin, obviously having no idea what the noise was or where it was coming from.

“Relax,” Clarke said as she got her phone out of her pocket, “it’s just my phone.”

“Your what?” Lexa asked.

Clarke lifted her phone up and showed it to Lexa.

“Phone,” Clarke replied, “people use them to talk to each other…”

When the blonde saw that Lexa was getting more and more confused as she spoke she shook her head a little.

“I’ll explain it to you in a minute, right now I need to answer it.” She said, before hitting the answer button, “Raven?”

“Where are you Princess?” Raven asked, “you’ve been gone for 4 hours, it does not take that long to get into a crypt, get a sword and get back.”

Clarke bit back a laugh as she saw Lexa’s brow furrow deeper, the Vampire hearing Raven’s voice coming through the strange device that the blonde held to her ear.

“Things got pretty… interesting here,” Clarke said, “you remember those urban legends…”

“The ones that are so unbelievably laughable?” Raven asked in reply, “the ones about Alexandria Woods being trapped in her coffin?”

“She actually prefers Lexa.” Clarke said, knowing just how crazy she was sounding at that moment.

“And how do you know she prefers Lexa, Clarke?” Raven said with a laugh, “Did you ask her?”

“Actually, she told me.” Clarke said, “I know this all sounds really crazy, Rae.”

“Oh yeah, it sounds totally crazy, Clarke,” Raven replied, “I’m starting to think that you’ve been drinking or smoking something that you shouldn’t. You really expect me to believe that you met Alexandria Woods?”

Clarke moved her phone away from her ear and looked at Lexa, whose eyes were narrowed as she looked at the blonde.

“Can you do something for me?” Clarke asked, causing Lexa to nod uncertainly, “can you say hello to my friend Raven?”

Lexa moved from where she was standing so she was closer to Clarke, the blonde held the phone up towards her.

“Hello Clarke’s friend Raven.” Lexa said.

“Thanks,” Clarke said as she brought the phone back to her ear, “See, Raven.”

“That could’ve been anyone, Clarke,” Raven said, still laughing, “you’re never going to get me to believe that Alexandria fucking Woods is alive and where you are.”

“I didn’t say she was alive…” Clarke muttered, “listen, Raven, the only way I can prove it to you is if you come to the crypt.”

“Or you could just bring your new friend home with you.” Raven offered.

“Would if I could, but I can’t,” Clarke said with a sigh, “we’re stuck. In the crypt. The door blew shut and it doesn’t have a handle on the inside, so we’re stuck.”

Clarke moved the phone away from her ear as Raven laughed, hard. The blonde looked over at Lexa, rolling her eyes as the small smile that was tugging on the brunette’s lips.

“Are you done?” Clarke asked when she put the phone back to her ear, letting out a groan as Raven continued to laugh, “apparently not. Listen, asshole, when you’re done, come and let me out, please.”

With that Clarke hung up the phone and put it back in her pocket, before resting her head back against the cool wall of the crypt.

 

x-x-x-x

 

A few hours passed, during which time Clarke explained to Lexa what a phone was, told her about computers and the internet, and filled her in on what the Woods family had been up to in the time that Lexa had been trapped. Lexa had, in turn, told Clarke more about Costia, about her life before she had met the human, and about what little she remembered from when she herself had been human.

“Is your friend going to come and open the door?” Lexa asked from where she was once again laid on top of the coffin.

She couldn’t be too near Clarke, she could hear the blood pumping through the girl’s veins, if she focused on her neck she could literally see her pulse. It wasn’t helping the hunger that was building within her. It also didn’t help matters that Clarke was one of the most beautiful people, human or Vampire, that Lexa had ever laid eyes on. At first, she thought that her opinions on Clarke’s beauty may simply be because she was the first person Lexa had laid eyes on in a very long time. But as the hours effortlessly passed them by, Lexa realised that it was a lot more than that.

Clarke knew what she was, and from what the blonde had told her Vampire lore was common place in the world so she was aware of what Lexa was capable of, yet she didn’t let that stop her opening up to the brunette.

“I hope so.” Clarke said from her position lying on the floor of the crypt next to the wall she had earlier been resting against, “not sure I want to spend forever trapped in here, no offence.”

“None taken,” Lexa replied, with another small smile, “the company is exquisite, but the lack of sustenance is starting to become a problem.”

“The company is exquisite, huh?” Clarke asked with a laugh, “you sure that’s not just because I’m the first person you’ve actually spoken to in 100 years or something?”

“It could be a factor.” Lexa said, a smirk on her lips as she looked over the side of the stone coffin at Clarke, “but I do not believe that it is a large factor.”

“When you say the lack of sustenance is starting to become a problem…” Clarke said, “how much of a problem?”

“You are safe for a while longer, Clarke.” Lexa replied.

“That’s good, because when a girl says take me out to dinner first, they don’t mean they want to actually be dinner.” The blonde replied, “I’m guessing that’s the first thing you’re going to do when Raven gets here, go and find someone to eat?”

“Unless taverns have started to serve blood, I do not see that I have much of a choice.” Lexa said.

“Yeah, taverns aren’t really a thing anymore.” Clarke said, laughing as she saw the shock on Lexa’s face, “there are bars and clubs now, same kind of thing, just with loud music and lots of sweaty people trying to get laid.”

“Perhaps I should try a bar or club then.” Lexa said, rolling back to look at the ceiling.

“I don’t think ‘do you want to come and see the inside of my coffin’ would be a good pick up line.” Clarke said, shaking her head as she laughed, “I mean, don’t get me wrong, you are stunning you probably wouldn’t need to say anything… can you feed from someone without killing them?”

“Yes,” Lexa said with a nod, “though it has been some time since I have fed.”

Clarke sighed as she sat up, causing Lexa to look at her, confusion on her face.

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this,” Clarke said standing up and walking over to the coffin, “but…”

Clarke started to move her hair away from her neck.

“No,” Lexa said, shaking her head as she sat up, holding her hands out towards Clarke, “I will not feed from you.”

“I’d rather it be my choice, and something tells me if we’re stuck in here much longer it won’t be,” Clarke said, “for some crazy, fucked up reason, I trust you not to kill me.”

“Your trust may be displaced.” Lexa said quietly.

“Yeah, well, beautiful woman sucking on my neck has to be a good way to go, right?” Clarke asked.

 

x-x-x-x

 

When Raven finally arrived at the crypt and got the door open, she found her blonde friend asleep, sitting between the legs of a stunning brunette, with her head resting on said brunette’s shoulder.

“You must be Raven.” Lexa said as she girl looked at her.

“Jesus Christ…” Raven said, the shock clearly written on her face.

“Her name is Lexa.” Clarke muttered, slowly lifting her head from Lexa’s shoulder before she looked at Raven, “you took your time.”

“This cannot be…” Raven said, shaking her head, her mouth hanging open slightly, “this has got to be…”

“There’s no hidden camera, nobody is going to jump out and yell surprise,” Clarke said as she stood up, Lexa standing up quickly after her, “this is real, it happened, deal with it.”

“But she’s…” Raven said, pointing to Lexa, the brunette smirking slightly as Raven looking comically between her blonde friend and the Vampire.

“She is.” Clarke replied with a nod, “can we please talk about this at home?”

The blonde walked over and picked up the sword that was still laying on the floor where she had left it. She looked at Lexa.

“Do you want this?” she asked.

“I am not sure what use I would have for such a weapon in this world.” Lexa replied, “it is what you came for, you take it.”

Clarke handed the sword to a still shocked Raven, who’s mouth was still opening and closing like a goldfish, before she turned back and walked over to Lexa.

“What are you going to do now?” she asked.

“I may attempt to find my parents,” Lexa replied, “if they are still walking this Earth. There are many things that I will need to learn…”

“You need somewhere safe to stay.” Clarke said.

 

\----------------

 

Raven stood in the doorway of the kitchen, an amused look on her face as Lexa stood, her head tilted to one side, watching as the popcorn turned in the microwave. It had been almost a week since Clarke’s little adventure to the Woods family crypt, and Lexa was still finding the new world fascinating.

“How does it work?” Lexa asked, not looking back at Raven, but obviously knowing that the girl was there.

“Radio waves, technically,” Raven said, walking into the kitchen, “they cause the water molecules in food to vibrate at an atomic level which causes the food to heat up and cook.”

Lexa hummed slightly but didn’t look away from the microwave.

“You have no idea what I just said, do you?” Raven asked with a laugh.

“No,” Lexa replied, shaking her head, “I do not.”

“I really didn’t think Clarke having a pet Vampire would be this entertaining.” Raven said.

“I am nobody’s pet.” Lexa snarled.

At that moment, the front door opened, a small smile tugged at Lexa’s lips.

“Lexa,” Clarke said as she walked through the door, “are you here?”

Raven just laughed again as Lexa walked from the kitchen to the living room, Raven followed on behind her.

“So entertaining.” Raven muttered to herself.


	2. Chapter 2

 

The way Clarke’s mornings usually went, when she had an early shift at the hospital where she was still doing her residency training, was that her alarm would go off and she would slowly drag herself into the kitchen to get her first coffee of the morning. In the time that Lexa had been staying at the apartment that Clarke shared with Raven, Clarke hadn’t been at work, she was on vacation. But this morning was different. She didn’t wake to the sounds of her alarm, she woke to the sounds of her alarm clock shattering against the wall.

“What the fuck.” Clarke said as she literally jumped awake in bed.

She looked around the room to find Lexa glaring at the broken remains of the offending object.

“Lexa, what did you do to my alarm clock?” Clarke asked as she rubbed her eyes as she sat up.

“It was making a noise and you were sleeping,” Lexa replied, “I stopped the noise.”

“It’s an alarm clock, Lexa, it’s purpose is to wake me up.” Clarke said, amused at Lexa’s actions.

“Oh…” Lexa said, a flash of surprise passing across her features, “in that case I apologise.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Clarke said with a laugh as she climbed out of bed, “it usually just irritates me.”

Clarke couldn’t miss the way that Lexa averted her eyes as she got out of bed, she knew it was because she was only wearing a t-shirt, it amused the blonde no end.

“So, what do you plan to do today?” Clarke asked as she walked over to her wardrobe and pulling out the clothes she’d be wearing to the hospital.

“I may read,” Lexa said, eyes still fixed on the floor, “Raven brought me some more books.”

“What’s the reading topic for today?” Clarke said, turning to look at the brunette.

“I have a choice of three,” Lexa replied, “The Evolution of the Species, The Art of War, or something called 50 Shades of Grey.”

Clarke bit back a laugh at the idea of Lexa reading 50 Shades.

“Don’t read that one.” She said, shaking her head slightly, “it’s all about bdsm, well it’s supposed to be but it’s such bad representation it might as well be a step by step guide to abusive relationships.”

“What is bdsm?” Lexa asked, her brow furrowed a little.

“Google it.” Clarke replied as she walked towards the bathroom.

“Clarke,” Lexa said, causing the blonde to stop and look back at her, a small smile on Clarke’s lips as she saw Lexa’s head tilted to one side slightly, “what’s Google?”

Clarke shook her head a little before she walked over to her laptop and turned it on, opening Google and typing in bdsm, before patting her bed indicating to Lexa that she should sit, then handing over her laptop when the brunette had sat down.

 

x-x-x-x

 

After Clarke got out of the shower she found Lexa still sitting on her bed, her brow furrowed and looking like she was deep in thought.

“You okay there?” she asked.

“Yes.” Lexa replied with a nod.

“Did Google answer your question?” she said.

“I still do not understand.” Lexa said with a sigh.

“Okay,” Clarke said with a sigh, sitting on the bed next to Lexa, “basically bdsm is all about trust, one person is the dominant, the other the submissive.”

“And it is about performing violent acts towards the other?” Lexa asked.

“No,” Clarke said, shaking her head, “it’s not about being violent. Some people enjoy pain during sex, some people enjoy dominating other people. There’s so much more to it than that though, but the main thing to remember is it’s all about trust. It’s about giving over control to someone else, but knowing that they won’t hurt you. Sometimes it’s not even about sex, sometimes that doesn’t even come into it. I can try and explain it to you more later if you’re still confused.”

“I think I will read Evolution of the Species, I am less likely to be alarmed by that.” Lexa said with a nod.

“Good choice.” Clarke replied with a laugh and a nod as she stood up from the bed, “don’t forget that there’s… a bag of blood in the fridge if you get hungry. Just remember to put it in the mug before putting it in the microwave, the bag exploding made a mess last time.”

“I remember.” Lexa said, a small smile playing on her lips.

“You think that was funny?” Clarke asked, her eyebrow arched slightly as she looked at the brunette.

“No,” Lexa said, the smile dropping from her lips, “but the way that Raven reacted was extremely entertaining.”

Clarke laughed as she walked from her room towards the kitchen, finding Raven sitting at the island, the look on her friends face made her laugh even harder.

 

x-x-x-x

 

After her 12-hour shift Clarke was making her way home, walking from the subway stop to the apartment. She felt as though someone was following her. There were still more than a few people out on the street as it wasn’t that late, but as she looked behind nobody really stood out. Just because nobody stood out, that didn’t stop Clarke speeding up slightly as she turned the corner. As she walked, she again glanced behind her, there was one woman who was looking at her, who looked away as Clarke saw her.

When she turned the final corner towards her apartment building she ducked into the doorway of another building. The woman who had been looking at her rounded the corner and cursed as she couldn’t see Clarke. She knew it was stupid but Clarke stepped out from the doorway.

“Why are you following me?” Clarke asked.

“You’re assuming that it’s you I’m following.” The woman replied.

“It’s pretty obvious you were following me,” Clarke said, “nobody else turned this corner. So, I’ll ask again, why are you following me?”

“Alexandria,” the woman said, causing Clarke to narrow her eyes a little, “she needs to be around her own kind.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Clarke said, moving to walk past the woman.

The woman grabbed Clarke’s arm, stopping her from walking, the grip on her arm was tight enough to be painful.

“She’s dangerous, human,” the woman said quietly, “keeping her trapped and surrounded by mortals is asking for trouble. Do you really think you’d have been able to get access to her crypt if I hadn’t heard you and your friends talking about your stupid bet?”

“You left the door open…” Clarke said, looking at the woman, “who are you?”

“A better question would probably be what am I.” the woman replied.

“As you’re asking about Lexa, I’m guessing you’re like she is.” Clarke said.

“But you’re not afraid of me?” the woman asked.

“I have a Vampire living in my apartment, well not living, obviously, but you get what I mean.” Clarke said, “if you’re not going to eat me, can you let go of my arm, it kind of hurts.”

The woman dropped Clarke’s arm.

“My name is Anya,” she said, “I am a member of the same Coven as the Woods family. I’ve known Lexa for hundreds of years. I’m not here to do her harm.”

“I’ll tell her that you’re asking about her,” Clarke said with a small sigh, “it’s her choice if she meets you or not.”

“She’s not…” Anya started to say.

“She’s capable of making her own choices,” Clarke said, cutting her off, “if you’ve know her family you could be a threat to her, you could want to lock her back away in that coffin. I’m not risking it.”

“Fine.” Anya said, getting a card of her pocket, “if she wants to meet me, call me.”

Clarke took the card and put it in her pocket, before walking away. When she glanced behind her again, Anya was long gone.

 

x-x-x-x

 

When Clarke got back to the apartment, she found Lexa sitting on the sofa, her arms resting on her legs as she leant forward, wide eyed as she watched the television. Raven was sitting on one of the chairs, a smile on her lips as she watched Lexa rather than the movie. After glancing at the television, Clarke could see they were watching Jurassic Park.

“Are you enjoying the movie, Lex?” Clarke asked.

“Yes, very much,” Lexa replied with a nod, “I am amazed at how they managed to put tiny people and dinosaurs inside the television.”

Clarke raised her eyebrow as she looked at Raven, the girl looking like she literally wanted to burst as she held in her laugh.

“They’re not tiny people, Lex,” Clarke said, “they’re actors, they’re not inside the television. And dinosaurs don’t exist.”

“But, Raven said…” Lexa started to say, stopping when Raven finally stopped being able to hold her laugh in any longer, Lexa clenched her jaw as she looked at the floor, “you were making fun of me again.”

“No,” Raven said, through her laughter, “I just…”

Lexa got up off the sofa and walked to Clarke’s bedroom.

“Come on, Lexa,” Raven called after her, “don’t be like that.”

Clarke simply looked at her friend as Lexa closed the bedroom door.

“You just can’t help yourself, can you.” Clarke said to Raven.

“Oh, come on, Clarke,” Raven replied, “how many times do you get to tell someone that there are tiny people in the television, and have them actually believe it.”

“You are unbelievable.” Clarke said, shaking her head as she turned and walked to her room.

The blonde knocked on the bedroom door, when there was no answer she opened the door and found Lexa sitting on the bed, the room completely dark. She walked into the room, turning the bedside light on before closing the bedroom door.

“She shouldn’t have done that.” Clarke said as she sat down next to Lexa on the bed.

“It makes me question everything else that she has told me,” Lexa said quietly, “this world is confusing enough to me without having to question everything that I am told.”

“If you tell me what she’s told you, I can tell you if she was lying.” Clarke said with a soft smile, “would that help?”

Lexa nodded a little.

“Can people really fly?” she asked.

“In airplanes,” Clarke said, Lexa nodding slightly, “yes, they can.”

“Has a person really walked on the moon?” Lexa asked.

“That one is complicated,” Clarke replied with a laugh, “the official line is yes, but then conspiracy theorists don’t think so. They think it was filmed in a movie studio, because the flag moved and there were shadows on the moon, but NASA still stick by the fact that people have walked on the moon.”

Lexa nodded again.

“Is that all?” Clarke asked, lowering her head a little in an attempt to get Lexa to look at her.

“Yes.” Lexa quietly said with another small nod.

“Okay,” Clarke said, “oh, I met someone who knows you today.”

That caused Lexa to look at her, her brow furrowed and an alarmed look on her face.

“Anya.” Clarke said.

“Did she hurt you?” Lexa asked, concern clear in her eyes.

“No,” Clarke replied, shaking her head a little, “well not really, I mean she gripped my arm pretty hard, but I’m pretty sure there’s not going to be any permanent damage. She was following me, I’m guessing it’s because she wants to know where you are…”

“How would she know that I was not where they left me?” Lexa asked.

“She was in the bar when my friends were talking about what I had to do because I lost the bet,” Clarke explained, “she basically said that I wouldn’t have been able to get into the crypt at all if she hadn’t overheard us talking.”

“Does she know where you live?” the brunette said, “does she know where I am?”

“No,” Clarke said, shaking her head, “she gave me her business card and told me to call her if you want to meet up with her.”

“I should,” Lexa replied, “but then my parents may know where I am.”

“We don’t even know if your parents are still around.” Clarke said.

“They are too stubborn to die…” Lexa said, clenching her jaw slightly, “would you come with me to meet Anya?”

“If that’s what you want.” Clarke replied with a nod, “of course I will.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raven and Lexa bond over stories of Dracula, before Lexa agrees to meet up with Anya and we find out why Anya wanted Lexa released from her coffin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, here is the new chapter of this series. Most people seemed to want me to repost this as a new work, so here it all is. Hopefully you enjoy this new chapter, it's not as funny as the previous two but it does bring in the reasons why Anya wanted Lexa out of her coffin. The funny stuff will return, I promise. Drop me a comment and let me know what you think.

As Lexa laid on the sofa in the darkened living room of the apartment that Clarke shared with Raven she couldn’t help but think how slowly time really passed, and how the world was never really silent. Clarke had recently asked her how she could just sit in silence, but Lexa knew that silence was something that didn’t really exist. Just lying on the sofa she could hear so many things, the steady heartbeats coming from both Clarke and Raven’s rooms, the traffic passing on the street outside, the old lady two floors down who was yelling at her cat for knocking over the plant pot. Nothing is ever really silent. The traffic noises were a relatively new experience for Lexa, as was the sound of ticking clocks and the constant buzz from the refrigerator in the kitchen.

Lexa thought about the most recent time she could remember pure silence. The time her family sealed her into the coffin in the family crypt. She couldn’t remember how long she had laid there before her body started to go into preservation mode, but that was probably the only time she had ever be in pure silence. Vampires are a quiet species in general, so in a room surrounded by her own kind it was quiet, but never silent. The old Vampire families always had humans working for them, so there were always heartbeats in the building, people breathing and scurrying around.

While she was thinking about how fascinating and overwhelming she found the modern world, she heard a change in the rhythm of Clarke’s heartbeat. Tilting her head to one side slightly, she wondered if the blonde was having a nightmare, but as she heard the soft footsteps on the carpeted floor of the room she knew it was nothing to worry about.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Over the previous few nights Clarke had become used to finding Lexa in her room. The first time she woke up to find Lexa laying on the empty side of her bed it had made her jump, as she had obviously not been expecting it, but it had become part of her nightly routine. She was used to being woken by nightmares in the night, but she found it oddly comforting to have Lexa close by. Raven thought she was crazy, the girl had easily adapted to having Lexa around, though she would constantly remind Clarke that Lexa was a Vampire. As if Clarke could actually forget.

So now, as Clarke woke to find the other side of her bed very empty, she was slightly alarmed. The fact that she was alarmed about it amused her a little, it wasn’t that she was worried about the fact that Lexa wasn’t there, that couldn’t be it. Right?

Getting out of her bed she made her way to the hallway, she could see that the living room light was off, which meant that Lexa wasn’t caught up reading yet another book. It was at moments like this that she wondered if Lexa ever slept. She didn’t know if Vampires even needed to sleep. As she walked closer to the living room she could see, from the streetlight spilling into the room, that Lexa was lying on the sofa, hands clasped behind her head. The Vampire didn’t acknowledge that she was there, though Clarke knew that Lexa would know she was there, no matter how quietly she walked she hadn’t been able to sneak up on her. Clarke took the time to simply watch Lexa. At first she had freaked out that she couldn’t see Lexa’s chest rise and fall, though she had mentally slapped herself when she had that thought, because obviously Vampires don’t need to breathe. Lexa, on occasion, looked like she was breathing, because she knew how much it freaked Raven out.

“Is there something that you needed, Clarke?” Lexa asked from where she was lying on the sofa.

“How did you know it was me?” Clarke asked in reply as she walked into the room, “it could’ve been Raven.”

“Raven walks loudly,” Lexa said, sitting up so that Clarke could join her on the sofa, “your scents are also very different.”

“Our scents?” Clarke asked, amusement clear in her voice.

“Yes,” Lexa replied with a nod, “every person has a scent that is very much unique to them. Underneath the scents that are placed on the body, like perfume, shampoo, soaps, things like that, there is a scent that is just… them.”

“I’ve never really thought about that,” Clarke said as she relaxed back into the sofa, “do Vampires have scents too?”

“Yes,” Lexa said with another nod, “for the most part we smell dead.”

Clarke couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped her, which got a small smile in response from Lexa.

“I’ve smelled dead, Lexa,” Clarke said, “you don’t smell like that.”

“You have smelled death,” Lexa said, “the recently deceased, that scent changes over time. If you were to describe my smell, what would it be?”

Clarke slowly moved closer to Lexa, the Vampire suddenly backing up on the sofa.

“You want a description, hold still.” Clarke said, a small smile playing on her lips, “the way you’re acting you’d think I was the predator here.”

A small laugh escaped Lexa as Clarke softly moved the brunette’s hair away from her throat, before closing the remaining distance and closing her eyes as she inhaled a scent that was so very much Lexa.

“It reminds me of a time I went camping with my dad when I was a kid,” Clarke said, without moving, “that initial smell you get when you first open your tent in the morning, like that scent of dew in the forest in the springtime…”

Lexa found herself looking down at the blonde, she could see the pulse in her throat, the point where she had inserted her fangs the first night they had met. She swallowed hard as she could sense the increase in Clarke’s breathing. Lexa was momentarily glad she didn’t have to breathe, because she knew the look in Clarke’s eyes as the blonde slowly lifted her head would have made her heart stop.

“You don’t smell like death, Lexa,” Clarke said quietly, as she got lost in the pools of green that looked back at her, “you smell like one of my most treasured memories…”

Lexa slowly raised her hand and brushed a strand of Clarke’s hair from her face, before opening her mouth to reply. Both girls jumped apart quickly as Raven loudly cleared her throat before walking through the living room towards the kitchen.

“Don’t mind me,” she said as she walked, “I just need to get a glass of water.”

“Did you put any more thought into meeting up with Anya?” Clarke asked, hoping to break the tension that now hung over them both.

“Yes,” Lexa replied with a nod, “I think I should. There has to be a reason that she wishes to see me.”

“Okay,” Clarke said, “I’ll call her, unless you want to call her?”

Lexa shook her head slightly.

“I think it would be better if you called her.” She said, “I have also considered where we should meet her, I am hoping it could be somewhere public.”

“Are you afraid of her?” Clarke asked.

“No,” Lexa said, shaking her head as she laughed, “I am not afraid of her, Anya has not been able to best me in a fight since we were both young. I just think that it would be better in a public setting.”

“A bar maybe?” Clarke asked, “Raven could come along as well.”

“Raven could come along where?” Raven asked, walking back into the room carrying a glass of water.

“To meet Anya,” Clarke explained, “she was following me earlier, apparently it’s because of her that I was able to go into the crypt that night, she’s wanting to see Lexa. I’m thinking a bar would be a pretty good place, it’s public enough, we could make a night of it.”

“You want to go with a Vampire, to meet another Vampire, in a bar full of humans?” Raven asked, a small smirk playing on her lips, “that’d be like a fast food pick up for them.”

“I am confused,” Lexa said, her brow furrowed as she looked at Raven, “slow food would surely be a better option.”

“If all Vampires were like you then nobody would’ve been scared of Dracula.” Raven said with a laugh, shaking her head, “Did that dude ever actually exist?”

“All of the best loved stories are grounded in some kind of reality.” Lexa replied.

“That does not answer my question, snappy.” Raven said, dropping herself down on the sofa between Clarke and Lexa.

“I assume you are talking about the being that existed in the story written by Bram Stoker?” Lexa asked, causing Raven to nod, “he is a character in a book, Raven. Though he was based on a real person, though most of what was written is entirely fictional. The person the book is based on was born in 1431 in Transylvania, which was part of the Kingdom of Hungry at that time. His name was Vlad the third, Prince of Wallachia.”

“So he was real?” Raven said, fascinated by what Lexa was saying.

“Some believe he still is.” Lexa replied with a small nod, “Vlad died on a battle field, during a war with the Ottomans in Bucharest in 1477. Some believe he was then turned into one of my kind by an extremely old Vampire by the name of Dagan.”

“Didn’t people call him Vlad the Impaler?” Clarke asked, remembering some of what she had learned at school.

“Yes,” Lexa said, a small smile playing on her lips, “he is believed to have impaled between 40,000 and 100,000 Europeans. Ironically, he himself died after being impaled on an Ottoman sword.”

“But is he real?” Raven pressed, “like, does he actually still exist in some creepy castle somewhere?”

“Who knows.” Lexa replied, a small smirk making an appearance on her lips.

“You know.” Raven said, causing Lexa to actually laugh, which brought a smile to Clarke’s lips.

 

\-------------------------

 

Clarke had contacted Anya like Lexa had asked her to, and they all agreed to meet up at The Dropship, a bar that Clarke and her friends were pretty much regulars at. Raven had invited Octavia along as well, which Clarke hadn’t known about until they got there. Octavia had yet to meet Lexa, so that was bound to make for an interesting conversation.

Clarke and Lexa were sitting in one of the booths waiting for Anya to arrive, while Raven and Octavia were getting drinks from the bar.

“Are you doing okay?” Clarke asked.

“Yes,” Lexa said, “though feeding before we came out was a brilliant idea. This place is like a cattle market.”

“There’s only one person you need to be thinking about going home with tonight.” Clarke said, causing Lexa to look at her.

“And who is that?” Lexa asked.

Just as Clarke was about to reply, Raven and Octavia came back with the drinks.

“So, Lexa,” Octavia said, causing Lexa to look away from Clarke, “I haven’t seen you around before.”

“My family was originally from Polis, but I have been… away, for a while.” Lexa replied.

“Your family still live here?” Octavia asked as she slipped into the booth next to Clarke.

“I believe so,” Lexa said with a small nod, “I have not tried contacting them yet.”

Octavia and Raven started talking about how difficult families could be, but Clarke could tell from the look on Lexa’s fact that the Vampire wasn’t listening. Her eyes were fixed on something at the other side of the bar, as Clarke followed her line of sight she could see Anya, and three men that she had never seen before, but Lexa obviously knew who they were.

Clarke softly squeezed Lexa’s hand, the other girl blinked a few times before she looked at Clarke, smiling slightly at the very obvious question in Clarke’s eyes.

“You didn’t mention you were bringing _people_.” Anya said, the way she said the word ‘people’ letting Lexa know that isn’t what she wanted to say.

Both Raven and Octavia suddenly stopped talking and looked at the new arrivals.

“You did not mention you were bringing family.” Lexa replied, her jaw clenched.

“It’s been a while since anyone has seen you, Lexa.” Anya said, a small smirk playing on her lips.

“And who is to blame for that.” Lexa shot back.

“Okay,” Raven said, looking between Clarke and Octavia, “why don’t we go and dance.”

Octavia nodded and followed Raven as they stood up from the booth.

“Clarke?” Raven said, “are you coming?”

“I’m going to stay here.” Clarke replied.

Raven didn’t say anything else, she just gave Clarke a look that said ‘I really hope you know what you’re doing’ before she and Octavia walked away from the table. Lexa indicated for Clarke to move round, so she was sitting at the edge of the booth, obviously not wanting any of the new arrivals to block her in. Once Clarke and Lexa had both moved round, Anya and the three others sat down.

“Your parents were very surprised to find the crypt empty when they went to visit you.” Anya said.

“You didn’t tell them?” Clarke asked.

“No,” Anya said, shaking her head, “if they knew where she was they wouldn’t hesitate to put her back, or worse, and that isn’t what any of us want.”

“Clarke said that you mentioned to her that if it was not for you she would not have gained entry into the crypt.” Lexa said as she looked at Anya.

“Your people need you, Lexa.” Anya said, causing Lexa to laugh bitterly, “I mean it, we need you.”

“Why?” Lexa asked.

“As you know, every 300 years, the leadership of the Coven changes,” Anya said, getting a short nod from Lexa in response, “those 300 years are nearly up. Every other family within the Coven has handed their portion of leadership over to the next generation, your parents haven’t. Aden is still too young to assume leadership, we need you.”

“The Coven did nothing when my parents sealed me in a coffin,” Lexa said, her anger starting to build, “why should I come to their rescue.”

“If you don’t the Coven will splinter,” one of the men said, “it will collapse.”

“And what happens then?” Clarke asked, looking around the group.

“No human in this city will be safe,” Lexa replied, looking at the blonde, “the families within the Coven follow set rules, openly feeding on humans is an offense punished by execution. If the Coven collapses there will be a power vacuum, this will lead to the families fighting against each other. Humans will be caught in the crossfire.”

“You’d get executed for feeding from someone?” Clarke said, her eyes still fixed on Lexa.

“Without their permission, yes.” Lexa said with a nod.

“That actually leads me onto my next question,” Anya said, “how have you been feeding?”

“I’ve been getting her blood from the hospital where I work.” Clarke said, before Lexa could say anything.

“So you have yet to feed from a living donor?” Anya asked, her brow furrowed, “You know that you can’t survive like that, Lexa, especially not after going so long without blood.”

“I have fed from someone.” Lexa said, “once.”

Clarke immediately brought her hand up to her neck, her fingers tracing over the place where Lexa had fed from, it was an action she didn’t realise she was doing. But Anya and the others certainly noticed.

“You fed from her?” Anya asked.

“I offered,” Clarke said, “she didn’t force me.”

“Have you spent any time apart since then?” Anya asked, her eyes flicking between Lexa and Clarke.

Clarke didn’t say anything, she just looked at Lexa, a questioning look in her eyes.

“Feeding can sometimes cause a bond of sorts to develop between my kind and yours,” Lexa explained, “it is very rare, it can also be dangerous. If the bond develops and the two are separated it can lead to certain side effects. The worst of which is death. But you and I have been separated for over 12 hours and I was not aware of feeling any adverse effects.”

“Can increased anxiety be considered an adverse effect?” Clarke asked, her voice quiet.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke finds out whether or not Lexa needs to sleep. Octavia, Clarke and Raven get Lexa to watch Twilight, and Lexa meets Finn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter amused me to write, hopefully you all like it. Drop me a comment and let me know whether or not you like it. Enjoy.

Lexa sat on Clarke’s bed, her back against the headboard and her legs stretched out in front of her, watching as the blonde slept. She hadn’t given any thought to the possibility that her feeding from Clarke would form a bond between the two of them as it was a very rare occurrence, Lexa had known it to happen twice, and she had never expected it to happen to her.

Anya had obviously wanted Lexa to leave the club with her, but Lexa needed time to think, she understood why Anya wanted her to go back with her, but she couldn’t, at least not yet. There were too many questions that were still unanswered, too many things that just didn’t make sense. Anya had explained to Clarke why she had left the crypt open for her that night, the lock on the coffin could only be activated by a mortal, or Anya would’ve already let Lexa out herself. Lexa figured that Anya assumed that anyone who actually came face to face with Lexa, or any other Vampire for that reason, would simply run in the opposite direction. But as Lexa was quickly coming to realise, Clarke wasn’t like anyone else.

Lexa’s past experience with humans was making her want to run from Clarke, run from what the bond could mean for them both. The last time Lexa had developed feelings for a human it had cost her 100 years, and the life of the girl she loved, she didn’t want that to happen again. Though she was pretty sure that if anything or anyone in her life ever became a danger to Clarke, Raven would end her.

From what Lexa understood about the bond, if it was severed early enough then there would be no adverse effects for the mortal involved, and she was seriously considering leaving Clarke’s apartment while the blonde girl slept. Though she wasn’t ready to go back to her people, there were still places where Lexa could hide out until she was ready, but there was a little voice in the back of her head telling her not to leave.

Lexa was pulled from her thoughts as she heard Clarke’s breathing increase, her heart rate also rising, though she remained asleep. Lexa furrowed her brow as she watched Clarke start to mumble something that she couldn’t decipher. It didn’t take her long to realise that the blonde was having a nightmare.

She softly started to run her fingers through Clarke’s hair in an attempt to calm her down, what she didn’t expect was for Clarke to shift in her sleep so her head was resting on Lexa’s legs. But rather than move her, Lexa simply picked up the book she had been reading and continued from where she had left off, thankful that she had almost perfect vision in the room which was currently dimly lit by the moon outside.

 

x-x-x-x

 

When Clarke woke up she felt as though she’d had the best night’s sleep of her life, she was also a little surprised to find Lexa appeared to be asleep on the bed next to her. As she propped herself up on her elbow, resting her head on her hand, she watched the brunette for a while. She’d often wondered if Lexa needed to sleep, and she figured now she had her answer.

“I can feel you staring.” Lexa said, slowly opening her eyes and looking at Clarke.

“Sorry,” Clarke replied with a soft smile, as she blushed slightly, “I didn’t know you needed to sleep.”

“I would assume there is a lot about me that you do not know.” Lexa said with a small smile of her own, “but yes, on occasion I do need sleep.”

“Do you dream when you sleep?” Clarke asked, furrowing her brow a little.

“Yes.” Lexa replied with a nod, “My kind are known to have very vivid dreams, a lot more real than yours.”

“I read somewhere that Vampires sleep in coffins,” Clarke said, making Lexa laugh, “did you ever do that?”

“Only for 100 years,” Lexa said with a slightly roll of her eyes, “as a general rule, we do not sleep in coffins. That is one of the many stories that was… encouraged by my kind. Mortals are less likely to try and break into a house where Vampires are thought to live if they believe they will find coffins.”

“It is kind of creepy.” Clarke agreed with a laugh, “What were you dreaming about?”

“Meadows full of wild flowers,” Lexa replied, “sunlight… the many things I can no longer directly see.”

“There’s something I’m curious about,” Clarke said, noticing Lexa arch her eyebrow slightly indicating for her to ask whatever question it was, “You can be in a room with windows, yet sunlight can kill you…”

“Direct sunlight,” Lexa said with a small nod, “I could not stand and look out of a window without getting a little… crispy. But being in a room that contains windows is fine as long as I stay out of the direct light.”

“Have you given any more thought to what Anya was talking about last night?” Clarke asked.

“About going back to the Coven?” Lexa asked in reply, receiving a nod of the head from the blonde, “No, I have not. As I said last night, the Coven did nothing to stop my parents when they killed Costia and entombed me for 100 years, why should I do anything to help them.”

“Anya mentioned someone called Aden last night, who is he?” Clarke said.

“My younger brother,” Lexa replied with a sigh, “he was attacked by an unknown Vampire when he was 12 years old, my father found him and for some reason decided that he could not let him die, so he turned him.”

“How did you… I mean…” Clarke stuttered.

“How did I die?” Lexa asked, looking at the blonde, who again nodded her head.

Before Lexa could reply the door to the bedroom opened.

“Clarke, Raven and I are…” Octavia said as she walked into the room, stopping when she saw that Lexa was there, “oh, sorry, I didn’t realise Lexa was here…”

“It’s fine, O.” Clarke said, looking at her friend, “you and Rae are, what?”

“We’re making breakfast, shall I make you some?” Octavia asked.

“Sure,” Clarke said with a smile, “and coffee, coffee is important.”

“No shit,” Octavia replied, “Lexa, do you want some breakfast?”

“If you are making some, then I will not say no.” Lexa replied with a tight-lipped smile.

“Great,” Octavia said with a smile of her own, “it shouldn’t be long.”

With that Octavia closed the door again and walked back into the kitchen where Raven was making breakfast.

“Do you even eat food?” Clarke asked, her brow furrowed as she looked at Lexa.

“On occasion,” Lexa replied, “we do not need to eat food to survive, obviously, but sometimes it is a nice change.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

“Did you know that Lexa’s still here?” Octavia asked Raven as she walked into the kitchen.

“Yeah,” Raven replied, not looking at Octavia, “she’s been staying here for a while.”

“How long have you known her?” the younger girl asked.

“About a week.” Raven said.

“And she’s been staying here for…?” Octavia asked.

“About a week.” Raven replied, “it’s really not as weird as it sounds.”

“How can it not be weird?” Octavia said as she sat down at the island in the kitchen, “you’ve known this girl a week and she’s been staying in your apartment since the first night you met her? She could be a mass murderer or something…”

“You have no idea how likely that is…” Raven muttered quietly, Octavia not hearing her, “You know what Clarke’s like about picking up strays. We were strays once.”

“We were also pretty young when we met Clarke,” Octavia replied with a sigh, “I’m just not sure I like the idea of someone staying here who might turn around one night and kill you when you’re asleep.”

“She’s not some kind of monster, O…” Raven said, shaking her head a little, but mentally high-fiving herself when she considered how true it was and how Octavia might actually think she was a monster when she found out the truth about her.

Both Raven and Clarke had decided to keep Lexa’s true nature a secret from Octavia and their other friends for the time being, it wouldn’t be fun when they found out, but they didn’t really need to know as they were in no danger.

 

x-x-x-x

 

“So, Lexa,” Octavia said as the four of them sat at the island in the kitchen, “who was that guy with the girl who met up with you last night?”

“Which guy?” Lexa asked, curious as there were two guys with Anya the previous night.

“The one with the big muscles and the mohawk.” Octavia replied.

“Lincoln,” Lexa said, “he is… family. _Extended_ family.”

“Is he single?” Octavia asked, causing both Clarke and Raven to nearly choke on their food.

“I… I am not sure.” Lexa said, “he is older than you though, of that I am very sure.”

“Age is just a number though.” Clarke said as she looked at Lexa, a small smile tugging at the Vampire’s lips.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Clarke, Raven, Octavia and Lexa were sitting in the living room watching a movie. They had decided to have a lazy day, which was fine by all of them. Octavia had chosen the movie, deciding she wanted to watch Twilight. Usually both Raven and Clarke would have a whole heap of objections, but as Clarke had mentioned Twilight to Lexa before she knew the Vampire was curious about it. Lexa had been asking questions throughout the movie, much to the amusement of both Clarke and Raven. One of the first questions that she had asked was why Edwards eyes had changed colour, Octavia quickly pointing out that it was because he hadn’t fed in a while and needed to do that ‘because that’s what happens with Vampires’. The smirk that played on Lexa’s lips had caused Clarke to laugh, loudly.

“Wait,” Lexa said, as the moment Clarke had been waiting for to see her reaction happened, the moment where Edward walks into the sunlight for the first time, “he sparkles?”

The tone of Lexa’s voice caused both Clarke and Raven to crack up laughing, Octavia simply looked confused. A knock at the door caused all four of them to look at the door.

“Are we expecting someone?” Raven asked, looking between Clarke and Lexa.

“Not that I’m aware of.” Clarke said, her brow furrowed as she looked at Lexa, the very slight shake of the Vampires head telling her that she wasn’t expecting any visitors.

Clarke got up and went to answer the door.

“Finn.” She said, the smile that had been on her lips dropping away quickly.

“Hey Princess.” Finn said with a smile.

“What are you doing here?” Clarke asked.

“Who is Finn?” Lexa asked Raven and Octavia.

“Clarke’s ex.” Octavia replied.

“He’s a complete tool,” Raven added with a sigh, as she moved to stand up, “she already told him that she didn’t want to see him again, he shouldn’t be here.”

Lexa stood up from the sofa fast enough that it made Octavia jump, before she walked to the door where Clarke was talking to Finn.

“I came to see you,” Finn said, “I figured you’d have had a chance to calm down a bit by now.”

“Is there a problem here?” Lexa asked as she walked up behind Clarke.

“No,” Clarke said, “Finn was just leaving.”

Clarke moved to close the door, Finn putting his arm out and stopping it.

“Come on, Clarke,” he said, “don’t be like that.”

“I believe she asked you to leave.” Lexa said, her eyes fixed on Finn as she stood next to Clarke.

“Who the hell are you?” Finn asked.

“Someone who is prepared to make you leave if you do not choose to.” Lexa replied.

“I’m just trying to talk to my girlfriend,” Finn said, “this really doesn’t concern you, so why don’t you just be a good girl and…”

“If it is making Clarke uncomfortable, then it does concern me,” Lexa said, interrupting him, “and you are clearly not welcome here, so I suggest you leave.”

As Lexa stepped forward slightly, Finn backed up, the look in Lexa’s eyes causing fear to build in his stomach as the blood started to drain from his face. The only thing that stopped Lexa getting any closer to him was Clarke putting her arm around her waist. Lexa glanced back at Clarke to see the blonde shake her head slightly.

“I already told you weeks ago, Finn, whatever there was between the two of us is over,” Clarke said, not moving her arm from Lexa’s waist, “please just leave.”

“Fine,” Finn said, looking between Clarke and Lexa, “but you’ll be begging me to come back soon enough.”

A small growl made its way from Lexa’s throat as she heard the tone of Finn’s voice.

“You do not want to come back here,” she said to him, “if you do, it will not end well for you.”

Finn didn’t say anything else, he just turned and walked very quickly down the hallway away from the apartment. Clarke closed the door and took a deep breath before she turned and looked at Lexa.

“You can calm down now, he’s gone.” The blonde said.

“I do not like him.” Lexa said, her eyes narrowed a little as she looked at the closed door, “He makes you uncomfortable.”

“Well he’s gone now.” Clarke said, putting her hand on Lexa’s chest, where her heart would be beating, “and something tells me he won’t be back.”

Lexa nodded a little as Clarke walked past her and went back into the living room.


	5. Important note

Explanation time, I’ve been having a difficult time with my illness (bipolar) over the last few months, my moods have been pretty manic and that isn’t a good time to try and be creative. Because of that I’ve had no access to a laptop (I actually smashed up my last one, have a new one now though) and I’ve been forcing myself to stay off the internet because I wanted to literally delete everything that I’ve ever written.

Everything has balanced out again now with new medication (and a lot of help from friends) so I’m posting this note on all of my on-going fanfictions to find out if anyone is interested in me actually continuing them as it has been so long since I updated. Reply in the comments and let me know either way.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter Clarke meets Aden, Lexa's younger 'brother', we find out more about the bond that is growing between the blonde and the brunette, and Lexa finally makes a decision about her future, but is it the right one?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope you all enjoy reading this chapter, and thank you for the responses to the note I posted, it means a lot to know that so many people are still wanting to read what I write, so thank you.

Lexa had felt a building sense of apprehension as the day went on, she was getting more and more restless as the hours passed, and she had no idea why. As she once again walked from the kitchen to the living room, sitting on the sofa where Raven was watching some movie she wasn’t paying attention to, she saw a slight smirk pass across Ravens lips.

“What?” Lexa asked as she looked at Raven.

“Nothing.” Raven replied, shaking her head.

“You are being more irritating than you usually are,” Lexa said, “that tells me that you obviously have something you want to say.”

“Look who’s catching on to the modern way of talking,” Raven said, flashing Lexa a grin before patting her arm, “I’m so proud.”

“Please do not touch me.” Lexa said, moving away from Raven a little on the sofa.

“You wouldn’t be saying that if I were Clarke.” Raven replied.

“Well, you are not Clarke, so your point is redundant.” Lexa said.

“You’re a little more cranky and short tempered than usual,” Raven said, looking at Lexa, the teasing look vanishing slightly from her eyes, “you okay? Getting hungry?”

“No,” Lexa said, furrowing her brow, “I ate this morning.”

“Is it your time of the month?” Raven asked.

“My what?” Lexa asked, the furrowing of her brow deepening in obvious confusion.

“Right, you’re technically dead, so that wouldn’t happen, forget it.” Raven replied, obviously not wanting to try and explain that to Lexa, “maybe you’re missing Clarke.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Lexa said, “that… might be a possibility, I don’t know. She was only supposed to be doing a 12-hour shift, wasn’t she?”

“Mass pile ups on the freeway tend to change that.” Raven said with a shrug.

“She’s been at work for 18 hours.” Lexa pointed out, clenching her jaw slightly.

“When she was training she sometimes didn’t come home for 3 days.” Raven said with a soft smile.

“3 days?” Lexa asked, “Do trainee doctors not need to sleep?”

“They have on-call rooms where they can get a few hours’ sleep,” Raven replied, “but they are worked pretty hard. It’s a high stress job, I guess they need to make sure they can handle it.”

As Lexa stood up again, Raven let out a little laugh.

“Will you just sit down,” she said, “she’ll be back soon.”

“I just… I seem to be a little restless.” Lexa said, sitting back down on the sofa.

“Is that a normal thing for Vampires?” Raven asked, curious about the answer.

“Not normally,” Lexa replied, “it’s a recent development.”

“I’m going to go out on a limb here and say it has something to do with Clarke,” Raven said, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, she really wasn’t sure how Lexa was going to react to what she was about to say, “you two are getting pretty close. She told me about that Vampire bond thing…”

Ravens sentence trailed off as she saw Lexa clench her jaw, hard.

“Now,” Raven continued, “I know it’s not really any of my business, it’s between you two, but as she’s my best friend I guess it kind of is my business… anyway, from what she said, it’s a pretty serious thing.”

“It is also a very rare thing,” Lexa said, keeping her eyes fixed on a spot on the wall, “I have known it to happen twice.”

“And how long have you been… you know…?” Raven asked.

“Close to 350 years.” Lexa replied, glancing at Raven just in time to see a flash of surprise pass through her eyes, “though for 100 of those years I was trapped in a coffin.”

“That’s something else I’m curious about,” Raven said, figuring she might as well get all her questions out as Lexa seemed to be in an honest mood, “how did you survive that? 100 years without feeding, that’s… insane.”

“The best way I can think of to explain it would be like when an animal goes into hibernation,” Lexa said, “I can remember the first three days of my incarceration relatively clearly, but nothing after that. The body just shuts down, and when the body shuts down, so too does the mind, thankfully.”

“So,” Raven said, “tell me more about this bond.”

“I am not sure of the exact details,” Lexa replied, furrowing her brow a little, “I know that as the bond develops it allows each to sense the other, feelings are shared, as is pain.”

“So, if you and Clarke bonded, you’d be able to feel if she was in pain?” Raven asked.

“Yes,” Lexa said with a small nod, “and vice versa.”

Ravens phone suddenly started to ring, making her jump, and causing a slight smirk to play across Lexa’s lips.

“Quit the smirking, snappy, don’t think Clarke didn’t tell me about you smashing her alarm clock,” Raven said as she picked her phone up from where she had left it on the arm of the sofa, a smile crossing her lips as she looked at the caller ID before answering, “Hey Clarke, we were just talking about you.”

Raven couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped her as she saw Lexa narrow her eyes as she looked at her.

“Don’t suppose you were talking about how you have absolutely nothing to do right now so you can come and pick me up from work?” Clarke said, “and please stop teasing Lexa, I’m not there to stop her biting you, remember.”

“She wouldn’t bite me, she likes you too much to kill your best friend.” Raven said, a smirk playing on her lips as Lexa shook her head before standing up and walking over to the window, “why do you need me to come and get you from work, I thought you took your car this morning?”

“I did,” Clarke replied with a sigh, “but for some reason it won’t start, and you know I’m not a big fan of taking the subway this late, please Rae, you know I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t have to.”

“Of course I’ll come and get you,” Raven said, “I’ll bring Lexa with me too, it might do her some good to get out of the house, she’s going to wear a hole in the floor if she keeps pacing around.”

“Why is she pacing around?” Clarke asked, “Is she okay?”

“She said she’s fine, just feeling a little restless.” Raven said, “we’ll see you soon.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

Lexa was standing against the wall in the hospital car park as Raven tried to figure out why Clarkes car wouldn’t start, as she knew absolutely nothing about cars she didn’t even try to help, instead she decided to keep an eye on everything around them, knowing that her feeling of apprehension had to mean something. The feeling itself had lessened slightly since they had arrived at the hospital, but there was still that niggling feeling in the pit of her stomach that something was going to happen, and whatever that something was, Lexa knew it wasn’t going to be anything good.

“Are you sure she’s okay?” Clarke quietly asked Raven as she glanced back at where Lexa was standing, noticing that the brunette’s eyes were flicking around as she watched everything.

“How the hell am I supposed to know,” Raven replied, “it’s not like we have a base starting point for what is natural Vampire behaviour. She said she was okay earlier, maybe it’s being outside that’s doing it, I mean, she hasn’t really been out in the city that much and it’s probably still all kinds of new.”

“I guess,” Clarke said with a sigh, “I’m going to go and talk to her.”

“You do that.” Raven said with a nod, looking up from the engine of the car to see that Clarke had already started to walk over to where the Vampire was standing.

Clarke slowly walked closer to Lexa, not wanting to startle her, though she knew that Lexa probably already knew she was there even though she wasn’t looking in her direction.

“You doing okay?” the blonde asked as she neared the brunette.

“Yes,” Lexa replied with a small nod, sensing a slight feeling of worry from the girl, “I have a feeling that something is about to happen, though I do not know what.”

“Something bad?” Clarke said as she reached the Vampire.

“Possibly.” Lexa said honestly, “it has been a long time since I’ve had to trust my feelings and instincts, it is an… odd sensation.”

“Being trapped in a coffin will do that to you.” Clarke said, smiling slightly as Lexa huffed out a laugh.

Before either of them could say anything else, a car pulled up close to where Clarkes own car was parked. Lexa narrowed her eyes a little as she looked at said car, she had yet to see a car like it in the city. It was black, with blacked out windows, and was longer than other cars she had seen.

“A limo,” Clarke said, surprise in her voice, “bit odd to see one of those here.”

“A limo?” Lexa asked, “what is a limo?”

“A limousine,” Clarke replied, “they are usually used by rich people, and it isn’t very often we see them around the hospital.”

As the driver’s door of the car opened, Lexa was sure if she had a heart it would have stopped when she saw who stepped out of the car.

“Isn’t that…” Clarke said, her brow furrowed as she looked at the guy, before glancing back at Lexa, “that’s one the guys who came with Anya to the club, right?”

“Yes,” Lexa said with a nod, stepping away from the wall, “he has worked for my family for almost 200 years.”

“So, what’s…” Clarke started to say.

“I don’t know why he is here.” Lexa interrupted, noticing the surprised look on Clarkes face.

“How did you know I was going to ask that?” Clarke asked, “are you physic now too?”

“Not that I am aware of, though reading peoples thoughts is a particular skill that some Vampires do possess,” Lexa replied with a small smile, “your asking why he was here was the next logical thing you were going to say, nothing more than that.”

“Someone wishes to speak with you.” The driver of the limo said, looking in Lexa’s direction before he walked to the back of the car and opened the door.

“Aden…” Lexa said quietly as the person in question got out of the back of the car.

To Clarke, Aden looked like a 12-year-old boy, she knew that wasn’t the case as Lexa had already told her that Aden had been 12 when he died.

“Can we talk?” Aden asked as he looked at Lexa.

Rather than say anything, Lexa walked closer to him, purposefully putting herself between Clarke and both Vampires who were now out of the car. She didn’t really think that Aden would harm the blonde, but she also hadn’t seen him in 100 years so she had no idea how much influence their ‘parents’ now had over him, nor how much that influence had changed him over the years.

“I mean her no harm.” Aden said as he noticed what Lexa was doing.

“I will not take that risk.” Lexa replied, “a long time has passed, your intentions are no longer known to me. What is it that you wanted to talk to me about?”

“The coming changing of power in the Coven,” Aden said, realising that he wasn’t going to get Lexa to talk to him in the car as he had hoped, “I know Anya has already talked to you about it, but I hope that you will reconsider.”

“The Coven stood by and did nothing as our parents locked me in a coffin for 100 years,” Lexa said, “and now you are wanting me to challenge our parents right to lead simply because nobody else is able to do so.”

“You are the only one who can,” Aden replied, “I am not old enough, or powerful enough to do so, if I was I wouldn’t have come here. I know that we’re asking a lot…”

“You are asking too much.” Lexa said, “I haven’t lifted a sword in 100 years and you are expecting me to fight whoever they choose as their champion. Knowing how twisted their minds are, they could choose you to be their champion.”

“You know that isn’t likely,” Aden said, a small smile tugging at his lips, “you have to remember how thrilled mother was when father turned me.”

“You were still a child, Aden,” Lexa replied, shaking her head a little, “nobody was exactly thrilled by his actions.”

“A child who would’ve died,” Aden pointed out, “which may have been preferable to battling through the last 100 years without you around. If you don’t challenge them, then the Coven will be subjected to another 300 years under their control, we have all heard the stories about what happened the last time they were in control. Are you seriously prepared to let our people go through that again? At the moment we are not fighting, we live in relative peace, each clan existing side by side with the others. Of course, there are issues between us, but violence is not used to solve those problems.”

Lexa noticed Aden’s eyes focus on something over her shoulder, she didn’t need to look back to know that he was looking at Clarke, she could feel the humans body heat as she stepped closer to her.

“The violence will not stay confined to our kind, you know that,” Aden said, looking at Lexa again, “would you be willing to risk them getting caught in the crossfire?”

Lexa didn’t reply, she simply clenched her jaw as she looked at Aden. She knew he was right, she knew that mortals would be caught up in the violence that was sure to follow once her parents were back in control of the Coven.

“I can’t stop it, Lexa,” Aden said, “but you can. The rumours of your return have started to spread, it will not be long before our parents are aware of it, and when they find out they are going to question everyone about it. I am not the only one who has knowledge of your human…”

Before Aden could even finish his sentence, Lexa moved forward and gripped him by the throat, lifting him from the floor. The Vampire driver couldn’t move fast enough to stop her, and Clarke had barely even seen Lexa move.

“Do not threaten her.” Lexa said quietly as she looked at Aden.

“The bond is already growing,” Aden replied, not too worried about his current position as a smile passed across his lips, “Anya was right.”

“Lexa…” Clarke said, walking up behind her slowly, “put him down.”

Lexa looked behind her towards the blonde, before looking at Aden again, her jaw clenched hard.

“Please…” Clarke said, placing her hand on the lower part of Lexa’s back.

That was all it took for Lexa to release the grip she had on her brothers’ throat.

“She wouldn’t have hurt me,” Aden said as his feet landed on the ground again, “but I appreciate the concern.”

Lexa was a little confused at the feeling of calm that was now rushing over her, as she knew that the feeling wasn’t coming from her, because all she felt at that moment was anger.

“The ceremony is in one week,” Aden said, turning his attention back to Lexa, “time is running out for you to decide.”

With that Aden turned and got back in the car, followed by the driver. Lexa remained where she was as the car drove away.

“Who was that?” Raven asked, her brow furrowed as she watched the car leave.

“My younger brother.” Lexa replied.

 

x-x-x-x

 

As she sat on the bed watching Clarke sleep, Lexa couldn’t help but let Aden’s words play over in her mind. If her parents found out about the growing bond between her and Clarke, the blonde wouldn’t be safe, they would kill her. She also knew that Aden had been right when he talked about mortals getting caught up in the violence that would spill over from the Coven and into the outside world.

Most of the other leaders who ruled over the Coven did so by mutual cooperation, her parents were one of two clan leaders who ruled by fear, the other was Nia, Queen of the Azgeda clan. Lexa knew that Azgeda would be another clan where leadership had yet to pass over to a younger Vampire, as Nia’s only son Roan had vanished many years before. Though her parents were both considered joint leaders of their clan, Lexa was very much aware about just who held all the power, it wasn’t her father, it was her mother. There were not many Vampires who scared Lexa, yet her mother terrified her.

She knew that she had two options, she could leave the city and never return, or she could stand and fight. If it had been anybody else but Clarke who had let her out of her coffin prison, leaving the city would have been the choice she would have made, but she knew that she now had no choice but to stay and fight.

She gently moved off Clarke’s bed, picking the blonde’s phone up off the nightstand as she walked out of the room and into the living room. Clarke had shown her how to go to the contacts list on the phone and make a call, so that’s what she did. Pacing up and down the living room as she waited for the call to be answered.

“Yes.” Was the response she got when the call was finally answered.

“We need to meet.” Lexa replied.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anya and Lexa come to blows over Clarke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I planned for this chapter to be longer than it is, but then I hit a block. Hopefully you all enjoy what I have written. Drop me a comment, let me know what you think.

Clarke had woken up in an empty apartment, Raven had gone out to a bar earlier in the night and Clarke knew enough to know not to expect her home until the next day. It had been Lexa not being there that surprised her, so Clarke had set about trying to find her. She knew Lexa had met up with Anya the previous night, so she called her. Anya told her that she seen Lexa earlier that night, but she had already left.

After thinking about where Lexa could’ve gone, she settled on the graveyard. As she walked towards the crypt where she had first met Lexa, she saw the door was open and soft candle light was spilling out into the darkness, she knew she’d found her.

She pushed the door open all the way open and found Lexa sitting on the floor, her back against the stone coffin.

“What are you doing here?” Clarke asked as she walked over to where Lexa was sitting.

“It’s quiet,” Lexa replied, “I needed to think. What are _you_ doing here?”

“I woke up and you were gone,” Clarke said, “I was worried.”

“Sorry,” Lexa said as she looked at Clarke, “I didn’t mean to worry you.”

Clarke furrowed her brow a little as she looked at the brunette, seeing marks and injuries on her face, obscured by the lack of light in the crypt.

“What happened?” Clarke asked, crouching down in front of Lexa, softly placing her hands on either side of Lexa’s face, gently turning the brunettes head to get a better look at the injuries.

“It’s nothing.” Lexa replied, moving her face away from Clarke’s hands.

“It doesn’t look like nothing to me.” Clarke said with a soft smile.

“They’ll heal.” Lexa said.

“You’re challenging your parents, aren’t you?” Clarke asked, “Is this why you’ve been meeting Anya?”

“I have no choice, Clarke.” Lexa said.

“Yes, you do, you have a choice,” Clarke replied, “you don’t have to do this.”

“Yes, I do,” Lexa said, “I have to do this.”

“Why?” the blonde asked, “why does it have to be you?”

“I have to keep you safe.” Lexa said, her brow furrowing slightly.

“Lexa,” Clarke said with a sigh as she stood up, shaking her head slightly, “it isn’t your job to keep me safe.”

“But it is.” Lexa said, standing up and walking over to where Clarke was standing, “Let me ask you something, does any of this make sense to you? Do these feelings between us seem normal to you?”

“Nothing about you seems normal or makes any sense to me.” Clarke replied with a laugh, causing Lexa to laugh as well.

“Fair enough,” Lexa said, “let me rephrase the question… Would you worry enough to leave the apartment and search if Raven wasn’t home?”

“If Raven was a Vampire who up until recently had spent 100 years locked in a coffin, who is still learning about the modern world, sure, I’d be worried.” Clarke replied.

“Worried enough to leave the apartment at 3am?” Lexa asked quietly as she stood directly behind the blonde.

Clarke fought to contain the shudder that ran through her as Lexa’s quiet words were spoken into her ear, knowing that it meant Lexa was standing very close to her. Even if Lexa hadn’t spoken she would have known she was close to her, she could sense it.

“How do you know it’s 3am?” Clarke asked, “Do Vampires have some kind of built in internal clock?”

“Yes, actually,” Lexa replied, causing Clarke to turn around and look at her, surprise written all over her face, “how else are we aware that dawn is approaching.”

“But is it an actual built in clock?” Clarke asked, noticing the small smile that was tugging at Lexa’s lips, “you’re making fun of me.”

“No,” Lexa said, shaking her head as she laughed, placing her hands on Clarke’s hips to stop her walking away, “we do know when dawn is approaching, and approximately how long we have to get indoors before the sun comes up.”

Lexa’s laugh stopped abruptly, surprising Clarke a little. Lexa put her finger softly against Clarke’s lips when the blonde opened her mouth to say something.

“Someone is outside…” Lexa said quietly, tilting her head to one side slightly.

“Who?” Clarke asked just as quietly.

“Vampire,” Lexa replied, “they are moving too quietly to be mortal…”

Lexa moved Clarke round to the far end of the stone coffin, her hands now back on the blonde’s waist.

“Stay here…” she said with a soft smile, “please.”

Clarke didn’t say anything, she just nodded her head. She stood and watched as Lexa walked, quickly and quietly, over to the door. She glanced over at Clarke before whoever the unwanted visitor was walked through the door, Lexa tightening her arm around their throat.

“Lex…” Anya said, tapping Lexa’s harm, “do you want to not squeeze my head off, I’d really appreciate that.”

“Anya,” Lexa said, letting go of the other Vampire, “what are you doing here?”

“I got a call about there being someone in here,” Anya said, turning to look at Lexa before glancing at Clarke, “I didn’t know it was you two.”

“Who else was it likely to be, Anya?” Lexa asked, “Grave robbers?”

“That’s not funny, Lexa.” Anya said, as Clarke laughed.

“It was pretty funny.” Clarke said, walking around the coffin to where the two stood, “Do you know something that I don’t find funny though…”

“I’m sure there’s a lot that you don’t find funny,” Anya said, rolling her eyes at the way Lexa was looking at her, “and I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”

“Lexa comes to you to help her prepare to challenge her parents, and you leave her looking like she’s gone ten rounds with an industrial wood chipper.” Clarke said.

“Do you think her parents are going to make it easy for her?” Anya asked, stepping closer to Clarke, “Do you really think they’re just going to stand aside and allow her to take power? They won’t. She is going to have to fight with everything that she has to simply survive, let alone win.”

“And how close do you have to come to killing her…” Clarke started to say.

“To kill something implies that something is alive,” Anya said, interrupting her, “you seem to be forgetting that Lexa is already technically dead.”

“Okay,” Clarke said, as Lexa looked between the two of them, “are you planning to end her existence before she has the chance to challenge them, because that’s certainly what it looks like to me.”

“Vampires are resilient creatures, Clarke,” Anya said, “if I wanted to end Lexa’s existence I would have to remove her head and set her on fire.”

“That’s how you kill a Vampire?” Clarke asked, her brow furrowed as she looked at Lexa, the brunette shrugging a little.

“One of the ways,” Lexa said with a slight nod, “one of the more painful ways.”

“If she’d have fed from the volunteer donor, like we suggested, her wounds would have healed already.” Anya said, causing Clarke to look at her before she looked back at Lexa, “oh, didn’t she tell you, she passed up a meal that would’ve helped her heal.”

“Why didn’t you feed?” Clarke said, her eyes fixed on Lexa.

“I just… it did not feel right.” Lexa replied, her jaw clenched.

“What do you mean it didn’t feel right?” Clarke asked.

“It isn’t going to feel right for her to sink her teeth into any pretty little neck other than yours.” Anya said.

“Was I talking to you?” Clarke said, anger clear in her voice as she looked at Anya.

Anya didn’t say a word, she simply took another step closer to the blonde.

“Back away, Anya,” Lexa said, “now.”

“She needs to learn that this isn’t a game.” Anya said, her eyes still fixed on Clarke, “she needs to remember that this is serious.”

“And you need to remember who you are talking to.” Lexa said, her own anger starting to flow off her in waves.

“You need to be honest with her, Lexa,” Anya said, turning her head slowly as she looked at Lexa, “you need to stop lying.”

“I haven’t once lied to her.” Lexa replied honestly.

“So, she knows that if your parents find out about this bond between you, it’s going to be even easier than it was last time for them to punish you?” Anya asked, “Does she know that they won’t be able to lock you away in a coffin after they cut her head off, because after they do that, you will die?”

“It’s time for you to leave.” Lexa said.

“You haven’t told her that her death will end you, have you.” Anya said, a small smirk tugging at her lips, “that your very existence is tied to hers in ways she cannot understand, how easy it would be for me to end you right now…”

Anya reached her hand out towards Clarke’s throat, before she could reach the blonde Lexa’s hand was around her throat as she lifted her from her feet and threw her across the crypt.

“Is this what we have to do to make you really fight?” Anya said, pushing herself back up to her feet, “harm your human? Because that can be arranged.”

Lexa flew at Anya in a fit of rage, both of them barrelling into the wall on the far side of the crypt, huge chunks of concrete falling from the wall. As soon as the two of them impacted the wall, Lincoln rushed in from outside.

“I heard a crash.” He said looking at Clarke, who’s eyes were fixed on Lexa, who was currently trying to rearrange Anya’s face with her fists, “well, that’s a new development.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continuing on from the last chapter, Anya keeps pushing Lexa's buttons, Octavia thinks that Clarke has a dead guy on her sofa, and Clarke and Lexa finally take another small step in their relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait. Hope you enjoy this part, it was fun to write. Drop me a comment, let me know what you think, comments feed the muse.

“You, sit there.” Clarke said to Anya when they arrived back at the apartment, pointing to one of the chairs, before turning her attention to Lexa, “and you, sit there.”

Lexa rolled her eyes as Clarke pointed to the far side of the sofa, but did as the blonde said and sat down. Lincoln stood leaning up against the wall, very clearly amused by what was going on, before Clarke looked at him.

“There’s some donated blood in bags in the fridge,” she said, “can you put them in the microwave for these two idiots, please?”

Lincoln nodded slightly.

“Is there any particular mug I should put the blood in?” he asked.

“No,” Clarke replied with a sigh, shaking her head, “any mug is fine.”

Lincoln nodded again before walking into the small kitchen to do as Clarke had asked.

“We are not going to be stuck here all day.” Anya grumbled as she glared at Clarke.

“In case you haven’t noticed, the sun is already coming up,” Clarke said, motioning to the window, “the way I see it, you have no choice.”

Anya knew that Clarke was right, she had known that when the blonde suggested they go back to her apartment from the cemetery as it was closer than any of the save haven’s that Anya had, she just hadn’t really put too much thought into what it was going to be like trapped in the apartment all day. Lexa may trust the human, but Anya didn’t know her anywhere near well enough to trust that she wouldn’t set her alight at some point, though the way that Lexa was looking at her made her think that it may be her that set her alight.

“You can always take a walk,” Lexa said, finally speaking up, “see how far you get.”

“Lexa…” Clarke said, as Anya let out what sounded like a small growl, “you’re really not helping.”

Clarke could still feel the anger flowing off Lexa, it was almost like she was a coiled spring ready to snap, she was sure if the fighting started again her apartment would be trashed and only one of the Vampires would be left standing.

“You’re treating us like children.” Anya said, looking at Clarke as Lincoln brought the two mugs of now warm blood from the kitchen.

“That’s what happens when you start acting like a child.” Clarke replied.

Lincoln fought to contain the huff of a laugh that was trying to escape him, he could see why Lexa liked this human.

“Fresh blood is always better at healing wounds,” Anya said, as Lincoln handed her a mug before he went to give Lexa the other one, “it heals quicker.”

“Well that’s all there is, so you’ll have to make do.” Clarke said, shaking her head, growing ever more tired with Anya’s snark, though she was pretty sure that it was just part of who Anya was.

“That’s not exactly true though, is it.” Anya said, a smirk on her lips.

Clarke could feel exactly what was about to happen as Lexa quickly stood up from the sofa. She turned to the brunette, knowing that if Lexa wanted to get to Anya then there was no way that she was going to be able to stop her.

“Hey,” Clarke said, standing in front of Lexa, her hands on the brunette’s waist as she looked past Clarke to where Anya was sitting quite happily, smirk firmly in place on her lips, knowing exactly what her words would do, “hey, look at me…”

Clarke softly placed one hand on Lexa’s cheek, guiding her face so their eyes met.

“She’s pushing your buttons to get a reaction,” Clarke said quietly, even though she knew that both Anya and Lincoln would still be able to hear her, “don’t give her what she wants.”

Lexa closed her eyes for a few seconds, feeling an intense sense of calm wash over her from Clarke’s close proximity, before opening her eyes again and nodding her head a little.

 

x-x-x-x

 

When Clarke finally went back to bed she was glad she had the day off from work, she was totally drained, and was pretty sure that she would fall asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. Or that had been her original thought before she had left the bathroom and gone into her bedroom to see Lexa laying on the bed looking up at the ceiling.

“Have you and Anya always had this kind of relationship?” she asked as she pulled the duvet back and climbed into bed.

“Yes.” Lexa said with a small nod, turning onto her side and looking at the blonde, “though I do not remember wanting to physically rip her head off before tonight.”

A small smile danced across Clarke’s lips.

“We do need to talk about what she said though,” Clarke said, brushing a strand of hair from Lexa’s face, the smile on her lips growing slightly as the Vampire once again closed her eyes at the contact, “about the bond thing. There’s a lot you haven’t told me.”

“I thought I would have more time.” Lexa replied, opening her eyes again and looking at Clarke.

“Looks like that time has run out.” Clarke said.

“It would appear so,” Lexa said with a small nod of her head, “what is it that you want to know?”

“Was Anya telling the truth when she said that if I die, you die?” Clarke asked.

“Yes,” Lexa replied with another nod, “or I would be weakened to the point where killing me would be very easy. Anya is a lot of things, but a liar isn’t generally one of them, she takes too much pleasure from the truth.”

“I’m guessing it works the other way too,” Clarke said, Lexa furrowing her brow a little in an unasked question, “like if you die, I die…”

“Not necessarily,” Lexa said, “there are… steps that can be taken to stop that from happening. It would cause you pain, but your death could be prevented. There are members of the Coven who have experience with this, and they would be able to help you.”

“The other times that this has happened, that you know about, what happened?” Clarke asked, not really sure that she wanted to know the answer.

“It twice resulted in the mortal being turned,” Lexa said, averting her eyes slightly as she didn’t want to see the look on Clarke’s face at that statement, “once it ended in death at the hands of other Vampires, and once it lasted around 60 years until the mortal died peacefully of old age…”

“So, this means that your life expectancy could be limited to at the most another 80 years or so…” Clarke said, her brow furrowed.

“That is one outcome,” Lexa replied with a nod, a soft smile playing on her lips, “though I would not call it a life expectancy, as I am technically already…”

“Don’t.” Clarke said, shaking her head a little.

“Would you rather I refer to it as mortally challenged?” Lexa asked, causing Clarke to literally laugh out loud, which in turn caused all the tension to lift from the room and another smile to tug at Lexa’s lips.

As the laughter died down and Clarke and Lexa lay there looking at each other, Clarke raised her hand and trailed her fingers softly down Lexa’s cheek.

“When you challenge your parents, I need you to promise me something.” Clarke said.

“And what is that?” Lexa asked.

“That you’ll be really careful, because I’m not ready to lose you yet.” Clarke replied.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Clarke was in the kitchen when she heard the front door of the apartment open and then close again, glancing at the clock she knew it would be Raven. What she didn’t count on was Octavia being there as well. Anya and Lincoln were still in the apartment, Anya in Raven’s room and Lincoln on the sofa.

“Looks like your night with Lexa didn’t turn out like I thought it would.” Raven said as she walked into the kitchen, “what’s with the dude on the sofa?”

“How did you think it would turn out?” Clarke asked, ignoring the rest of what Raven had said.

“Well the two of you were finally alone,” Raven said with a shrug, “I know she’s technically dead…”

“Mortally challenged…” Clarke said, interrupting her, causing Raven to let out a laugh.

“I like that,” Raven said, shaking her head slightly, “too bad I didn’t think of it. But, anyway, so she’s mortally challenged, but you two just need to get it over with.”

“Get what over with?” Clarke asked, knowing exactly what Raven was getting at, but deciding she was going to play dumb.

Just as Raven was about to reply, a yelling Octavia called from the living room.

“Clarke,” she yelled, “I think this dude on your sofa is dead…”

Clarke and Raven looked at each other, eyes widening slightly, before they both walked out into the living room.

“He isn’t breathing.” Octavia said, looking at them both before looking back at Lincoln.

“I’m pretty sure he’s not dead, O…” Raven said, walking over to the sofa and giving it a quick kick, causing Lincoln to sit bolt upright, “see, he’s not dead, maybe you just didn’t notice his chest rising and falling due to the breathing…”

Lincoln caught on to what Raven was saying, and used the same trick Lexa did from time to time, to make it look like he was breathing.

Octavia yelling also had another consequence as Clarke’s bedroom door opened and Lexa walked out, obviously rather alarmed at the noise, she looked questioningly at Clarke.

“Octavia was freaking out because she thought Lincoln was dead…” Clarke said.

“I see,” Lexa replied, “I can understand how that would be alarming.”

“I’m telling you, he wasn’t breathing.” Octavia said, shaking her head as she walked into the kitchen.

“We’re really going to have to tell her, you know.” Raven said quietly once Octavia was out of earshot.

“She doesn’t know that Lexa is…” Lincoln said, not needing to finish his sentence as Clarke shook her head.

“We can’t exactly sit her down and explain it to her,” Raven said, “she’ll freak out. Being told that your friends have a Vampire living in their apartment isn’t really something that happens every day.”

“Vampire?” Octavia asked from where she was standing in the doorway of the kitchen, “as in all ‘grrrr I’m going to suck your blood’, that kind of Vampire?”

Clarke couldn’t contain the laugh that escaped her as Lexa slowly turned her head and looked at Octavia, her eyebrow arched slightly as she looked completely offended.

“It’s… er… it’s complicated, O.” Clarke said, once she had stopped laughing.

“She either drinks your blood, or she doesn’t,” Octavia replied, “nothing complicated about it.”

“She doesn’t drink my blood.” Raven said, holding her hands up a little as she sat down on the sofa, knowing that this was going to be interesting to watch.

“Nor does she drink mine,” Clarke said, “well, she did once, but that was…”

“Extenuating circumstances.” Lexa added, when Clarke couldn’t find the words she was looking for.

“So it happened once but it’s never going to happen again?” Octavia asked.

Raven laughed as a look passed between Clarke and Lexa, she knew that there was no way it wasn’t going to happen again at some point.

“Not helping.” Lexa said, glancing back at Raven, causing her to laugh even more.

The laughter stopped when the other bedroom door opened and Anya walked out.

“You let her sleep in my room?” Raven asked, looking at Clarke.

 

x-x-x-x

 

“So, let me get this straight,” Octavia said, looking between Clarke, Raven and Lexa, “you’re telling me that there’s this whole community of Vampires who live in this city, and we just don’t know about it?”

“Come on, O,” Raven said, “you’ve got to remember all the stories we used to hear as kids…”

“I thought they were just stories,” Octavia replied, “like urban legends or something.”

“Some urban legends happen to be true.” Clarke said, glancing at Lexa who had remained very quiet since Anya and Lincoln left the apartment.

“You survive by drinking blood, right?” Octavia asked, her eyes now fixed on Lexa.

“Yes.” Lexa replied with a nod.

“Do you sleep in a coffin?” Octavia said.

“Not anymore.” Lexa said, shaking her head.

“Not any… wait a minute,” Octavia said, having a sudden lightbulb moment, “you’re Alexandria Woods… That night when Clarke lost the bet and had to get that sword, you met a real life, well real undead, whatever the correct term is, Vampire and you didn’t tell me?”

“I am assuming this is not the type of freaking out you believed would happen.” Lexa said, looking at Clarke who just shook her head with an amused look on her face.

“Did your parents really kill the girl you loved?” Octavia said, looking back at Lexa again, “I mean that’s the story, right, they kill the girl you love and you died soon after or something…”

“Her name was Costia,” Lexa said with a small nod, “and I obviously didn’t die soon after. The punishment I faced for not killing her myself was to be locked away in a coffin.”

“And I thought my parents were fucked up…” Octavia said, shaking her head a little.

 

x-x-x-x

 

“Are you going to meet Anya again tonight?” Clarke asked.

“Yes,” Lexa replied with a nod, “my sword skills are still a little rusty.”

Clarke nodded a little, but Lexa could sense that she was worrying.

“I’ll be careful,” she said, lowering her head a little so that Clarke would meet her eyes, “I promise.”

At the look in Lexa’s eyes, the sincerity in her voice, and the soft smile playing on her lips, something in Clarke snapped and she quickly closed the distance between them, capturing Lexa’s lips with her own. She wasn’t sure what she thought kissing Lexa would be like, but her lips were a lot softer than she imagined they would be. The kiss itself, though full of more feeling than Clarke thought possible, was brief. They both backed away a little, their eyes still closed as Lexa rested her forehead against Clarke’s, the blonde’s breathing coming slightly deeper than it had.

“I don’t know if I should apologise for that…” Clarke said.

“Did you mean to do it?” Lexa asked, Clarke backing away ever so slightly at the question.

“Yes…” Clarke replied.

“Then do not apologise.” Lexa said.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke and Raven find out more about what's going to happen when Lexa challenges her parents. Then there is a small time jump to the night of the challenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter was fun to write, though I did have to check the rating part way through writing it to see if I could get away with the way this chapter went towards the end. You'll understand when you read it. Drop me a comment and let me know what you think.

“Why did I let you drag me here again?” Raven asked.

“Oh please,” Clarke replied, rolling her eyes and shaking her head, “I didn’t drag you anywhere, you wanted to come.”

The pair were sitting off to the side of a large room, watching as Lexa sparred with a guy who Clarke was pretty sure was more animal that man. He was over 6 feet tall and would probably block an entire doorway if he was standing in one. She’d been unable to contain the small gasp that escaped her when he had stepped forward, though the small smirk that tugged at Lexa’s lips when she saw him lessened the anxiousness that Clarke felt slightly.

Clarke was right of course, when she said that Raven had wanted to go with her. When Clarke had told her where she and Lexa were going, she all but begged to go with them.

“What can I say,” Raven said with a shrug, “I’m just really curious about how all this is going to go down.”

“So it has nothing to do with the fact that you’re starting to like having Lexa around, and you wouldn’t want anything to happen to her?” Clarke asked with a small knowing smile.

“Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here,” Raven replied, “you like Lexa and you like having her around, I’m just being the supportive best friend here.”

A laugh coming from someone nearby them caused both girls to look in that direction. Standing not too far away from them, leaning against the wall, was Aden.

“Something funny?” Raven asked.

“Not at all.” Aden replied, a smile still playing on his lips.

Anya and Lincoln walking closer to them attracted everyone’s attention.

“We have two days,” Anya said as she and Lincoln reached Aden, “that really isn’t a lot of time.”

“Is she going to be ready?” Raven asked, causing the three of them to look over at her.

Anya looked like she wasn’t going to answer her, it had nothing to do with them anyway, but she knew in a very big way that it did have something to do with the mortals.

“Physically, yes,” Anya replied, obviously not very happy at having to include them in the conversation, “emotionally, that’s questionable, and mentally… probably not.”

“Our mother likes playing mind games,” Aden said, looking back at Lexa, “so though Lexa may very well beat whoever they choose as their champion in a straight up fight, it’s impossible to know just what kind of games mother will play. Lexa was always good at not letting her get into her head, but that was before… There are still question marks over whether she is mentally sound…”

“She seems mentally sound to me.” Clarke said with a small shrug.

“Around you, yes,” Aden said with a small smile, “but you’re not the one who locked her inside a coffin for 100 years after killing the girl she loved.”

“We can’t prepare for that,” Anya said, shaking her head, “whatever happens is going to happen. All we can deal with is everything else surrounding the challenge.”

“What does that entail, exactly?” Clarke asked.

“The meeting of the entire Coven takes place three nights from now,” Anya said, clenching her jaw as she looked at where Lexa was still fighting, “in the large manor house on the outskirts of the city. During the meeting there will be the handover of power, before that takes place everyone will be asked if there’s anyone present who objects… Lexa will have to come forward at that point.”

“That sounds pretty simple.” Raven said, “or am I missing something?”

“For the challenge to be accepted there has to be three people from within our clan that back her,” Anya replied, “we have that covered, but we also need at least two other clan leaders to back her as well.”

“Luna will.” Aden said, “I already talked to her, you know she hates the violence.”

“That leaves us one short.” Lincoln said.

“Nia…” Anya said, knowing that the other two were not going to like it at all, “she will Lexa as a weaker alternative to her parents, an easier target. She’s wrong, of course, but she will believe that Lexa will be easier to… bend to her will.”

“Who are they likely to put forward as their champion?” Clarke asked.

“We don’t know,” Anya replied honestly, “it could be anyone.”

“So, it could even be you, or Lincoln?” Raven said, her brow furrowed slightly.

“They know that neither of us would fight her,” Anya said, shaking her head a little, “it would be a waste.”

A large crash caused them all to look towards where Lexa was. The man she had been fighting was lying in a crumpled heap near a now broken wooden chest.

“I thought you said that you were going to make this challenging for me.” Lexa said, looking at Anya, as she started to spin the spear that she held in her hands, “as you can see, that wasn’t much of a challenge.”

Clarke saw a smirk start to play on Anya’s lips as she took of the jacket she was wearing and handed it to Lincoln, before she picked up two swords that were resting up against the wall. Clarke glanced at Lincoln who was shaking his head a little as Lexa threw the spear to someone else.

 

\-----------------

 

“Are you sure about this?” Lincoln asked Lexa as they stood in one of the many rooms of the manor house.

The other members of the Coven had already started to arrive, along with their humans. Each clan had humans who willingly donated their blood, Lexa used to remember them being like property, and as she had watched from the darkness as they arrived she could see that not much had changed at all.

Each of the members of the Coven wore a long dark cloak, with a large hood. The outer part of the cloak was black, the inlay was blood red silk. Lexa had always hated them, but now, as Lincoln put the hood up on the cloak she was wearing, she knew the hood was the only thing that stood between her and her parents knowing she was there.

“No,” Lexa replied, “but I also know that I have no choice.”

“There’s always a choice,” Lincoln said, “you can leave, take Clarke and go…”

“Where would we go, Lincoln?” Lexa asked with a soft smile, “there’s nowhere that I would be welcomed, or where Clarke would not be in danger.”

Lincoln knew that she was right.

“Where is Clarke?” Lexa asked, knowing that both Clarke and Raven were at the manor.

“They’ll be on the upper level,” Lincoln said, “surrounded by other humans, Ryder is keeping his eye on them.”

“If this goes badly…” Lexa started to say, putting her hand up slightly when Lincoln opened his mouth to say something, “let me finish. If this ends badly, Clarke will need to see Nyko.”

Lincoln nodded a little, knowing exactly what Lexa was getting at.

“But it won’t end badly.” He said, flashing her a smile, “I believe in you, Aden believes in you, Anya… well she’ll act like she doesn’t, but you know what she’s like.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

Clarke and Raven stood next to the balcony that ran around the entire upper level, as they looked down into the room below them they could see about 300 Vampires.

“That’s a lot of Vampires…” Raven said quietly to Clarke.

“That’s not even all of them,” someone standing nearby said, “this is only the higher ranked Coven members. I’m Niylah.”

“Raven,” Raven replied, “and this is Clarke.”

“It’s nice to meet you both,” Niylah said with a smile, “you look nervous, is this your first Coven event?”

“Yep,” Raven said with a nod, “so we have no idea what to expect, any tips?”

“Just relax,” Niylah said with a laugh, “you’re safe up here.”

“Who’s that guy?” Clarke asked, as a Vampire walked to the front of the elevated stage area, dropping his hood to reveal a bald head with a series of tattoos on it.

“That’s Titus,” Niylah said, “he’s… I suppose you could say he’s like a mediator. He doesn’t answer to any of the clan leaders, other than whoever is in power.”

“He looks like an idiot.” Raven mumbled.

“He’s not as respected as he wants to be.” Niylah said.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Titus lifted his hands, bringing the entire room into silence.

“We all know why we are here,” he said, “it is time for the handover of power. Every 300 years this event takes place, it is scared.”

Lexa lingered towards the back of the hall, listening to Titus speak, waiting for what was to come.

“As is customary, anyone within the Woods clan can take this night as a chance to challenge their clan leaders for the right to lead the clan, and the Coven.” Titus continued, “This is a rite that is written in our laws, and so will be respected this night as it has always been.”

Lexa started to move through the crowds. The Vampires towards the back of the room were the ones lower down in the ranks of their clans, with clan leaders and their seconds sitting in high backed chairs in front of the elevated stage.

As she neared the front she felt a sudden jolt of anxiety. She knew it wasn’t coming from her, she was as ready as she was ever going to be for this, and whatever happened this night she would know that she had given it her all. She glanced up towards the balcony of the upper level, it didn’t take her long to find the eyes that she was looking for. She hoped the fact that she was so calm would also calm down Clarke. As they shared a small nod, she felt the anxiety start to subside, not vanishing completely, but certainly dropping to a level she could deal with.

Lexa then focused her eyes on what was happening in front of her. She could see her parents, sitting up on the raised stage where Titus was talking, Aden standing slightly behind them to their left, the space to their right was empty. That had been her position.

“Does anyone here from the Woods clan wish to issue a challenge?” Titus asked.

Lexa could see a smug smile tug at her mother’s lips as people looked around them but nobody stepped forwards.

“Anybody?” Titus asked.

“I think it’s clear that…” her mother started to say.

“I issue a challenge.” Lexa said, stepping through the gap in the highbacked chairs, into the centre of the room

“And who are you to challenge me?” her mother asked, standing up.

Lexa didn’t say a word, she simply dropped her hood, her eyes still fixed on her mother.

“Alexandria?” her father asked, looking like he was going to stand up, until her mother shot a look at him.

“For a challenge to be accepted, you need three people from our clan to back you.” Her mother said, “who are the traitors who will back you?”

“I will.” Lincoln said, standing up.

“I will.” Anya said as she stood up.

“And I will.” Aden said, stepping forwards.

Lexa could see a look of what she could only describe as pride pass over her father’s features.

“And the clan leaders who are willing to back this challenge?” Titus asked, looking around the circle of leaders.

This had been the part that Anya and Lincoln were worried about. They needed at least two of the other clan leaders to back Lexa, or this whole thing was for nothing, and the punishment that Lexa faced wouldn’t be 100 years in a coffin, she would be executed.

“I back this challenge.” Luna said from her seat.

“As do I.” Indra said.

“And I.” Nia added, causing a mutter to spread around the room.

“Silence!” Titus said, raising his hands again, once the room had quietened down again he looked at Lexa, “you understand that this is a fight to the death?”

“I do.” Lexa replied with a small nod.

“And should you succeed, you will be the sole leader of your clan, and the leader of this Coven?” Titus asked, Lexa didn’t reply, she simply nodded, “Very well.”

Lexa could feel her mother’s eyes on her, and she could feel a darkness pushing at the edges of her mind. When Aden had told Clarke that their mother liked to play mind games, he hadn’t told her that he meant literally. Alana Woods had the ability to enter people’s minds. She could use her gift to make them doubt themselves, to doubt those around them, or simply to cause them pain. It’s why her mother was as feared as she was. It was also something that Lexa had a lot of experience countering, though she hadn’t had to do it for a very long time.

She closed her eyes and imagined a wall being built around her mind, brick by brick, before opening her eyes and looking at her mother again.

“ _You’re weak_ ,” her mother’s voice said echoing in her mind, “ _you are not worthy of the Woods name_.”

“Name your champion.” Titus said, looking towards her mother.

“Roan,” Alana said, “heir to the Azgeda clan.”

Another mutter rang around the room, Roan hadn’t been seen in over 100 years. Lexa glanced at Nia and was surprised to see no reaction from her at all.

“You have one hour to prepare,” Titus said to Lexa, who nodded in reply, “then you will be brought back here to face your fate.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

“Roan?” Anya asked, walking into the room that Lexa was using to prepare herself.

“We knew it could be anybody.” Lexa replied.

“But Roan?” Anya said, shaking her head.

“I take it that fighting Roan is a bad thing?” Raven asked, looking around at the people gathered.

“It’s certainly not a good thing.” Anya replied.

“It’s fine, Anya,” Lexa said, looking at the other girl, “I’ve fought bigger people than him.”

As Anya talked to Lincoln, Lexa looked at Clarke, the blonde girl was sitting in one of the chairs in the corner of the room.

“Is everything okay?” Lexa asked, crouching down in front of the blonde.

“Oh yeah, everything’s great,” Clarke said with a sigh, “in an hour you could be dead, and…”

“Clarke…” Lexa said, resting her hands on Clarke’s legs, “you do not have to watch the fight.”

“But I do,” Clarke said, clenching her jaw as tears started to burn at her eyes, “I have to…”

A knock at the door made Clarke jump. Lexa didn’t move but looked over her shoulder towards the door.

“It could be Aden.” Anya said, walking over to the door, anger showing on her face as she opened it, “what are you doing here?”

“I would like to speak to my daughter.” Lexa’s father said.

Anya looked at Lexa, the choice was hers. She nodded a little before standing up, putting herself between Clarke and the door.

Anya let her father in, with Aden following him and a human girl that she had never seen.

“What’s this?” Lexa asked, glancing to the girl before looking at her father, “a peace offering?”

“You need to feed before the fight.” Her father replied.

“That might be the case,” Lexa said, “but I don’t need your assistance.”

“Alexandria…” he said.

“ _Lexa_ ,” Lexa said, interrupting him, “my name is Lexa.”

“Lexa,” her father said, “I understand that you’re angry…”

“You understand _nothing_.” Lexa said, fighting to keep her anger contained, “you stood by and watched as _she_ killed Costia, you said nothing as she locked me inside a coffin for 100 years. I needed you then, not now.”

Lexa looked from her father to the human girl who was standing and looking at the floor.

“You can leave,” Lexa said to her, “you’re not needed here.”

The girl looked at Lexa’s father, who nodded slightly, before she walked from the room.

“I failed you,” her father conceded, “I could have done more, but don’t let your anger with me affect your strength to fight. You need to feed.”

“And she will.” Clarke said, standing up, finding a strength that she didn’t know she had.

“Once this is over, I hope you will allow me to explain everything to you.” Lexa’s father said.

“Assuming you are still able to listen.” Lexa replied, her jaw clenched.

Her father didn’t say another word, he simply nodded his head slightly and walked from the room.

“Let’s… let’s give them some time alone.” Aden said, looking around the room.

“You going to be okay, Clarke?” Raven asked, as the others started to leave the room.

“Yeah.” Clarke said with a nod, “yeah, I’ll be fine.”

A look passed between Raven and Lexa that Clarke couldn’t read, before her best friend left the room, leaving her and Lexa alone.

“I had some blood before we left the apartment,” Lexa said, turning around and looking at Clarke, her words getting momentarily lost in her throat as she saw the blonde start to unfasten the cloak she was wearing, “I… I don’t need to feed.”

“Yes, you do.” Clarke said, dropping the cloak to the floor.

Though she was fully dressed underneath the cloak, the look in her eyes made Lexa feel that she hadn’t eaten in 100 years, a feeling that she remembered all too well.

“Clarke…” she said as the blonde slowly walked towards her, “you don’t…”

“I do…” Clarke replied, softly cradling Lexa’s face with her hands, “I do…”

Clarke closed the distance between their lips, surprising Lexa. It took a split second for her to register what was happening, her hands slipping around Clarke’s waist as her brain caught up. It didn’t take long for the kiss to heat up, turning almost desperate. As Clarke ran her tongue across Lexa’s bottom lip, she used the sudden distraction to turn them around, and back Lexa towards the chair.

It made Clarke’s heart pound in her chest when she thought about this Vampire allowing herself to be lead around by a human.

Lexa sat down as soon as the back of her legs hit the chair, Clarke wasting no time at all, straddling her legs.

“You don’t have to do this.” Lexa said, backing out of the kiss.

“I know I don’t have to,” Clarke replied, breathing deeply, “I want to…”

Clarke could see from the look in Lexa’s eyes that she was battling with herself.

“Let me do this for you, Lexa.” Clarke said.

“I don’t want to hurt you.” Lexa replied.

“You’re not going to hurt me,” Clarke said with a soft smile, “the last time you fed from me it didn’t hurt, so why would this time be different?”

Lexa simply clenched her jaw as Clarke moved her hair from over her shoulder, a small smile tugging at her lips as she watched Lexa’s eyes flick down to her neck.

“Are you sure?” Lexa asked, her lips already moving towards Clarke’s neck.

“Very…” Clarke replied, her fingers tangling in the brunette’s locks as she sighed feeling Lexa softly kiss the pulse point on her neck.

Lexa gripped onto Clarke’s hips as the blonde started to grind down a little.

Unlike the first time that Lexa had fed from her, for some reason Clarke was starting to feel that heat pooling in her lower stomach.

“Is it wrong that this is turning me on?” she asked quietly, a husky tone to her voice.

Lexa huffed out a laugh against her neck, before lifting her head and looking at the blonde.

“Why don’t we see what we can do about that…” Lexa said, capturing Clarke’s lips with her own.

Clarke could swear that her heart was going to beat right out of her chest as she felt Lexa’s fingers unbuttoning her jeans as she kissed her. As their tongues continued to brush over each other, Clarke felt Lexa’s hand slip down the front of her pants. A low growl found its way from Lexa’s throat when her fingers were met with Clarke’s wetness.

“You’re already wet…” she said, trailing her fingers through Clarke’s folds, tilting her head to one side slightly as she watched the emotions playing across Clarke’s features.

She couldn’t help but bite down a little on her own lower lip as she watched Clarke close her eyes as she slipped a finger inside her, the blonde letting out a noise that hit Lexa right at her own core.

She started to kiss down Clarke’s neck as she pushed her finger deeper inside her. The angle wasn’t perfect, but it’s all that she had to work with at that moment, so she didn’t let it stop her. She added another finger as Clarke started to rock her hips towards her, the blonde’s fingers gripping harder in her hair as she tilted her neck, giving Lexa better access.

It didn’t take long for her to feel Clarke start to tighten around her fingers, she backed away from her neck a little, licking her lips before baring her teeth and, as softly as she could, sinking them into Clarke’s neck.

Clarke’s orgasm hit her like a freight train as she felt Lexa’s teeth sink into her neck, the Vampire didn’t stop moving her fingers as she fed from Clarke. Rather than reaching dizzying heights and crashing totally over the edge, Clarke’s orgasm kept going and going while Lexa fed. It wasn’t until Lexa started to slow her fingers down, backing away from Clarke’s neck a little that the blonde started to feel like she was coming back down to earth again.

“Fuck… fuck… fuck…” Clarke said, desperately trying to catch her breath as she dropped her head to Lexa’s shoulder.

Before Lexa pulled her fingers out of Clarke, she used one of her fangs to cut her own finger, running it across the puncture marks in Clarke’s neck. As the marks totally disappeared she softly pulled her fingers out of the blonde, Clarke groaning a little as she did.

“Better?” Lexa asked, causing Clarke to laugh a little as she lifted her head and looked at her.

“Surely I should be asking you that.” Clarke said, softly kissing Lexa again.

A knock at the door caused Clarke to jump.

“Yes.” Lexa said, her eyes still fixed on Clarke.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Lincoln said, opening the door slightly but not looking into the room, “you’re going to have to get ready soon.”

“Thank you, Lincoln.” Lexa said, her eyes flicking across Clarke’s face as Lincoln closed the door again, it was almost like she was trying to commit the blonde’s face to her memory.

Though Lexa knew that she would never forget Clarke’s face, the girl having become a very common feature in Lexa’s dreams.

“Be careful…” Clarke said, “please…”

Lexa didn’t say anything, she simply nodded her head slightly.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lexa and Roan fight and then Lexa makes a decision that Anya really doesn't agree with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the fourth of fifth edit of this chapter. I did have the sword fight written in, blow for blow, but it didn't flow. I've always believed that you should write what you know, or it won't read well, and I've never had or seen a sword fight in my life (other than in tv shows) so my writing of it didn't read as being believable to me. I haven't skipped over it completely, it's still there, but it's more thoughts and feelings during the fight, rather than the blow by blow description of it. I have tried really hard to make this chapter worth the wait, and I'm not sure I've actually succeeded, but this is what I have. Drop me a comment and let me know what you think about it, every comment really does help.

The room was full of people, but it was silent. Clarke was sure that you’d be able to hear a pin drop. She and Raven were once again standing on the balcony, but this time they weren’t only surrounded by other humans, Anya and Lincoln were both there with them. Clarke was pretty certain that was Lexa’s doing, in case something went wrong, and she knew that even though she and Anya didn’t get along all that well, she was still thankful they were there. They both helped her feel a little less freaked out by the whole situation. The last few weeks of Clarke’s life had been pretty unbelievable by anyone’s standards. Firstly, she finds out that Vampires do in fact exist, then she ends up weirdly bonded to one.

Lexa was unlike anyone that she had ever met before, obvious reasons aside. She had a power and a strength that would scare Clarke in any other circumstances, but as it was they were two of the many things about Lexa that made Clarke feel safe.

As she thought about it, she couldn’t help but roll her eyes and shake her head. She couldn’t help but feel it was slightly ironic. Someone that could easily kill her made her feel safe, safer than anyone else in her life ever had.

“You okay?” Raven asked, a look of concern on her face as she looked at Clarke.

“I will be,” Clarke replied, “once all this is over…”

“She is going to win this, right?” Raven said as she looked at Anya.

“If she doesn’t, this night is not going to end well for any of us.” Anya replied, the furrow of her brow and the tension in her jaw betraying how she felt, even with the calmness in her voice.

“That’s… not at all comforting.” Raven said, shaking her head.

“Everything will be fine.” Lincoln said, looking as confident as he sounded, which actually made Raven feel a little more relaxed.

Clarke wished she could believe Lincoln, but she knew that Anya was right, if Lexa didn’t win the fight with Roan then the night wouldn’t end well at all. None of them would see morning.

 

x-x-x-x

 

“I don’t want this any more than you do.” Roan said as he watched Lexa select her weapon of choice.

“You could always concede.” Lexa replied, as she checked the balance of the sword she held.

“If I concede, I’ll be dead before sunrise.” Roan said.

“When you lose you may also be dead before sunrise.” Lexa said, her eyebrow arched slightly as a small smirk played on her lips.

“When, not if?” Roan asked, his own lips tugging up slightly, “That’s a little arrogant of you.”

“It is not arrogance,” Lexa replied, “it’s confidence.”

Roan shook his head a little, as both he and Lexa walked over to the raised platform.

“As you are both aware, this fight will end in death,” Titus said, looking between them, “I wish you both luck.”

Lexa and Roan backed away from each other as Titus stepped back, indicating that the challenge had begun. Lexa easily blocked the first couple of strikes from Roan as she watched how he moved, stepping back out of his reach as she made a mental note about his weight distribution, all while ignoring the fact that she could literally feel her mother’s eyes burning a hole in the back of her head.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Clarke wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, a speedy clash of swords, a blur of metal, but as she watched Lexa circle Roan, watching his every move, she was pretty sure that this wasn’t what she thought about when she considered what a sword fight would be like.

“She’s studying him.” Anya said, as she saw the look on Clarke’s face, arching her eyebrow a little when Clarke looked at her, a questioning look on her face, “You looked confused.”

“I am I guess,” Clarke said, “this isn’t what I expected.”

“If you expect to win a sword fight, you have to study how your opponent moves,” Anya replied, “if you go straight in, waving the sword around, hoping to connect with something, you will end up being run through. She’s trying to find any weak points.”

“Does he have any weak points?” Raven asked, a small smirk playing on her lips.

“I can point out at least 4 strike points that Lexa could use.” Anya said with a small nod, completely ignoring the suggestive tone of Raven’s voice.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Lexa couldn’t stop the small smile playing on her lips as Roan turned as he moved towards her. It was quick, but she was quicker. His actions allowing her to bring her sword up the length of his back, a hiss leaving his lips as the slicing movement cut through the clothes he was wearing, as well as the skin underneath.

It had the desired effect, it caused him to become angry, and therefore sloppy with his actions. Out of the corner of her eye, Lexa could see her mother drop her head slightly. As Lexa blocked a flurry of attacks from Roan she could hear Anya’s voice in her head, she knew the other girl would currently be yelling at her to concentrate at what was happening in front of her, rather than what her mother was doing. As Roans sword cut through the skin on her arm, she knew that Anya would’ve had a point, if she’d been able to yell at her of course.

Lexa shook her head slightly, putting all of her concentration back on Roan as she blocked yet another slicing movement aimed towards her mid-section, which caused her to step back a little. She could see a fury in Roan’s eyes, brought on by both the fact that he had managed to cut her, and the fact that he had caused her to back up. He knew she wasn’t concentrating.

She pushed everything else from her mind, causing the room and everyone in it to disappear, allowing her to concentrate on nothing but Roan. He wasn’t the person that her anger was directed against, he wasn’t the one who had caused her suffering, but he was the person who was currently in front of her. So, she poured all the hatred she had for her mother into her actions.

Bringing her sword down, quickly, she caught Roan unawares. She didn’t stop her attack as he stumbled backwards. Lexa took the advantage and sliced at his leg, causing him to drop down onto one knee.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Clarke could feel her heart stop as she watched Lexa’s flurried attack against Roan, she could feel the anger flowing from her, and it scared her. She’d never seen that side of Lexa before, the Lexa she had seen was caring and sweet, in an odd sort of way. Though she had seen Lexa lose her temper with both Anya and Aden, she had never felt any kind of fear about it before. When Lexa had fought against Anya, Clarke had been more worried about them tearing each other apart, now Clarke was getting her first real view of the Vampire.

 

x-x-x-x

 

“End it.” Roan said through gritted teeth, knowing he wouldn’t be able to withstand another onslaught.

Lexa didn’t move to end anything, she just stood looking down at Roan.

“End it.” Roan repeated a little more forcefully.

“No.” Lexa said, shaking her head.

“This fight ends in death,” Roan said, “you know the rules.”

“I also know the rules don’t state that it has to be my death, or your death…” Lexa said.

A look of confusion crossed Roan’s face as he considered Lexa’s words, his confusion turning to surprise as Lexa moved quickly from standing in front of him, to where her mother and father sat on the raised platform.

 

x-x-x-x

 

In the blink of an eye, Lexa had gone from standing over Roan, to standing in front of her mother. Her sword down by her side as her mother’s head slowly fell from her body.

“Did she just…” Raven said, as the Vampires around the hall started to realise what had just happened.

“We need to leave.” Anya said, looking at Lincoln.

Lincoln nodded and quickly cleared a path to the door, Anya literally dragging Clarke with her, Raven more than happy to follow them.

 

x-x-x-x

 

“You got your death.” Lexa said, looking at Titus, “the challenge is over. I grant Roan of Azgeda his life.”

Titus looked at Lexa’s father, the two sharing a small nod of agreement.

“Somebody clean up this mess.” Titus said.

Lexa found herself frozen to the spot, unable to move.

“It’s over, child.” Indra said, as she walked up next to Lexa.

 

x-x-x-x

 

“What the hell just happened?” Raven asked, as Anya closed the door of the room behind them, “Did Lexa seriously just cut her mother’s head off? And why wasn’t there more blood? I mean, I always expected, if someone got their head cut off, there’d be blood spurting out everywhere…”

“That would only happen if their heart was beating.” Clarke said, shaking her head as she sat down in the chair that she had been in with Lexa less than two hours previously, “that’s what causes blood to flow around the body, no heart beat equals no spurting blood when you cut someone’s head off.”

Raven furrowed her brow a little as she thought about what Clarke had said, Clarke could literally see the moment when she realised that Clarke was right.

“What happens now?” Clarke said, looking at Anya.

“I don’t know.” Anya replied honestly, “the challenge fight is supposed to be to the death, it’s supposed to end in death…”

“Well, it did end with a death,” Raven said, “just not the one that everyone was expecting.”

“Lexa’s parents ruled together,” Lincoln said, “her father would have to give up his claim to leading our clan, and therefore the coalition.”

“Will he do that?” Clarke asked.

“I… I don’t know.” Lincoln said, “I would think so, he wasn’t his wife’s biggest supporter, she was…”

“Terrifying,” Aden said as he walked into the room, “she was terrifying.”

“Where’s Lexa?” Clarke asked him as she stood up.

“She… she has a few things that she needs to take care of,” Aden said with a small smile at Clarke before he looked at Anya, “she would like to talk to you.”

Anya nodded a little before walking out of the room.

 

x-x-x-x

 

“Can it be done?” Lexa asked Nyko, as everyone in the room turned to look at Anya who had just walked in.

“It’s… I can’t say whether it would be 100% successful, but it might work.” Nyko replied, turning his attention back to Lexa, “it’s never been used on a human when the Vampire is still alive, and we have no idea what this will do to you.”

“What’s going on?” Anya asked, her eyes fixed on Lexa.

“She wants to break the bond.” Nyko said when it became clear that Lexa wasn’t going to answer.

“She wants to… what? Are you crazy?” Anya asked, “it could kill you.”

“It’s worth that risk,” Lexa replied, “too many people now know about Clarke, and I cannot risk her safety, I just… I can’t.”

“The serum that has been developed should safe-guard against any serious negative effects on Lexa,” Nyko said, “as Clarke would still be alive, it may…”

“I’m hearing a lot of should’s and may’s.” Anya said shaking her head, “Why would you go through all of this just to throw it all away?”

“It isn’t as if you actually like her, Anya,” Lexa said, her eyes narrowed as she looked at the other Vampire, “so let us not pretend that you’re considering her wellbeing in any of this.”

“She’s a pain in the ass,” Anya said honestly, “and could become a problem, there’s no denying that, but you know what happens to our kind if the bond is broken like this.”

“It’s my choice.” Lexa replied, the coldness in her voice letting Anya know that the conversation was over.

Anya shook her head, she knew that once Lexa had made up her mind about something it couldn’t be changed, she also knew that Lexa had made some pretty messed up choices in her existence, but this was a mistake.

“So, what,” Anya said, just as Lexa was about to open her mouth to say something to Nyko, “you get her to drink the serum, she wakes up tomorrow in her bed with no memory of you or any of this? Is that what’s going to happen?”

“That is the idea, yes.” Lexa replied.

“I can’t watch you do this.” Anya said, shaking her head again, “I might not like the girl, but you _are_ going to regret this. A bond like this doesn’t come along very often, Lexa, what you have is special. I may not like it, and I may not approve, but I also know that it isn’t a choice. You are going to feel that loss every day for as long as you are on this earth, and every day that pain is going to grow, and grow until eventually it consumes you.”

With that Anya turned and walked from the room.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lexa tries to adjust to the life she now has and the choice she made, as Clarke tries to figure out just what it is that she can't remember.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for the looooooong delay in updating this (or anything). I broke my arm, tried to continue writing (bad idea) which lead to the bones not healing the way they should. I then had to have my arm rebroken and the bones reset. The moral of that little story is when your doctor tells you not to do something, don't do it. Anyway, back now fully healed (almost) and ready to get on with this thing. I know a lot of you didn't want Lexa to do the 'thing' but she did, it'll all work out in the end, promise. Drop me a comment and let me know what you think.

When Clarke woke up her head was pounding, she felt like she had been partying up a storm the night before, though she couldn’t remember anything that happened. With a groan she sat up and checked the time on her phone, it was almost noon. After a mini-panic, and a quick check of her calendar, she realised that she had the day off before going on to the night rotation at work.

She needed to know what had happened the previous night, so she dragged herself out of bed in search of Raven. Raven always remembered what happened when she was drunk, Clarke usually did but figured she must have drunk a little too much, even when that normally happened she could remember everything.

As she walked into the living room she could hear Raven before she saw her, the groaning gave it away.

“What did we do last night?” Clarke asked as she walked through the living room towards the kitchen.

“I have no idea.” Raven grumbled, “I was hoping you’d be able to tell me.”

“Yeah, no, not going to happen,” Clarke replied as she made a start on coffee, “I don’t have a clue, but I feel like we probably had fun.”

“So why can’t we remember it?” Raven asked.

“Guess it must have been a really good night, huh?” Clarke said with the huff of a laugh as she shook her head.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Across town Anya walked over to the doorway of what was now Lexa’s office in the Woods Inc office building. Lincoln was already standing in the doorway when she got there, watching as Lexa nodded along with whatever she was going over with Aden.

“How’s she doing?” Anya asked Lincoln.

“I think she’s a little overwhelmed by everything,” Lincoln said, “I’m pretty sure I’ve seen her eyes glaze over a few times. Information overload.”

“Has she talked to you about last night?” Anya said, her brow furrowing slightly as she looked at Lexa.

“No,” Lincoln replied, shaking his head, “Aden mentioned Clarke and Lexa looked like she was going to rip his head off. Have you tried talking to her about it?”

“I haven’t tried talking to her, period.” Anya said, “I still don’t agree with what she did.”

“Why not?” Lincoln asked, “It’s not like you ever actually liked Clarke.”

“That isn’t the point,” Anya replied, “whether or not I actually liked her doesn’t play into this at all. What Lexa did was stupid, it was risky, and just…”

“Stupid?” Lincoln said, a slight smile playing on his lips.

“It wasn’t only risky for her, it was also risky for Clarke,” Anya continued, “she makes this big thing about it all and then throws it all away. I just don’t get it.”

“You two aren’t talking as quietly as you think you are.” Lexa said, looking at the pair from where she sat behind the desk, “as you’re here, I want your opinion on something.”

“I’ve got something I need to do.” Anya said, shaking her head a little as she walked away.

“Give her a bit of time,” Lincoln said as he walked into the office, “she’ll come round.”

“With the way she is acting you would think my decision affected her directly.” Lexa replied, rolling her eyes as she shook her head slightly.

“She’s just worried.” Lincoln said.

“There’s no need, I’m fine.” Lexa said, a cold edge to her voice letting Lincoln know that he really shouldn’t push it anymore.

“What did you want to talk about?” he asked.

“Aden mentioned something about my parents using a group of scientists to produce a synthetic blood mix.” Lexa said, “is that really possible?”

“It was an idea that Luna had, I think,” Lincoln said, “it made its way back to your parents and your mother believed that it would raise their standings with certain members of our community. From what I know your mother wasn’t really that on board with it, her opinions about keeping humans around…”

“As walking snack boxes…” Lexa added quietly, a small smile playing on her lips as she remembered Clarke saying that exact thing to her.

“You okay?” Lincoln asked as he noticed Lexa clench her jaw, hard.

“I’m fine,” Lexa replied, shaking her head a little, before looking back at the computer screen, “looking at this report, it says that the scientists were close to a breakthrough, can we follow up on that?”

She looked between Aden and Lincoln, both of them nodding.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.

“You’re the boss,” Aden said, a smile on his lips, “you don’t have to ask us if you can do something. I don’t think mother ever asked, she demanded.”

“Well I’m nothing like her.” Lexa said.

“The scientists also said that the synthetic blood would have a longer storage life,” Aden said, suddenly remembering something else that he thought Lexa would want to know, “the blood donations can only be stored for a set amount of time, so this would be better in that way as well.”

He saw something change in Lexa’s eyes, as she obviously thought about something else, rather than push her on it he waited until she was ready to voice the thoughts she was currently having.

“We could market this.” She said.

“That’s what swayed your mother in the first place,” Lincoln said, “money. Not like she didn’t already have more of it than anyone could ever spend.”

“I don’t mean market it to the Vampire community,” Lexa said, shaking her head, “Clarke said something about them sometimes running low on blood donations at the hospital, sometimes they don’t have the right type of blood or sometimes they have a slow month when collecting donations… Could we use this and market it to mortals?”

“I’m not sure,” Aden replied honestly, “that’s something you’ll have to talk about with the scientists. Do you want me to call them in for a meeting?”

“Yes,” Lexa said with a nod, “is there anything else that I should know about?”

“So much,” Aden said, making Lincoln laugh, “there’s so much going on here that you don’t know about, but we have time.”

A knock at the door caused the three of them to look over to see a nervous looking human standing there.

“S-sorry to interrupt, Ms Woods.” The girl stuttered.

“Ms Woods was my mother,” Lexa replied, “I’m Lexa.”

“Right, sorry.” The girl said.

“Why are you so nervous?” Lexa asked, “I don’t bite.”

“Well…” Aden said, a smirk tugging at his lips.

“How old are you?” Lexa asked the girl, ignoring Aden even though his words did amuse her.

“18.” The girl replied.

“And how long have you been working here?” Lexa said.

“6 months,” the girl said, “my father, he… he took a loan from your mother and…”

“You were the repayment.” Lexa said, pinching the bridge of her nose as she realised that her mother really hadn’t changed in the 100 years she’d been locked in her coffin, “What’s your name?”

“Tris.” The girl replied.

“Well, Tris, I don’t approve of people being used to pay off a debt,” Lexa said, glancing at Aden, “I want a list of everyone who works here, or at the house, who my mother would consider property.”

“I’ll get right on that.” Aden said with a nod.

“We need to start paying these people…” Lexa said, Lincoln nodding in agreement, “do you want to keep working here, Tris?”

“The debt…” Tris said, Lexa stopping her by raising her hand.

“My mother is dead, that debt died with her.” Lexa said, “if we start paying you, do you want to keep working here?”

Tris nodded her head as Lexa looked at Lincoln.

“Who would deal with that?” she asked, suddenly unsure of what she was doing.

“Anya.” Lincoln replied, “I’ll talk to her.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

As Clarke’s day had continued she couldn’t help but feel like something was missing. At first it didn’t bother her that much, but eventually it started to feel like something clawing away at her chest. She had the feeling that it was something that she really should remember, but it didn’t matter how hard she thought about it, she couldn’t remember what she was forgetting, which really didn’t help with how she felt.

To get her mind off whatever it was, Raven had suggested that they meet Octavia for drinks. Clarke assumed they’d be meeting at The Dropship, but Octavia suggested a change of scenery, instead arranging to meet them at a new bar/club called Polaris. Clarke hadn’t really heard too much about it, though Raven had. It was supposed to be this edgy upmarket place. Clarke trusted her friends not to lead her astray, which, when she thought about it was probably a bad idea. These were her friends after all.

So that’s how Clarke found herself sitting in a darkened booth at Polaris. She couldn’t help but look around at the décor, it was a mix between modern and classical. She had been slightly confused when she’d been at the bar ordering drinks, when she heard someone ask to see the other drinks menu. Now she was sitting waiting for Raven to get back from the bar.

She noticed Octavia talking to a guy that she didn’t know.

“Who is Octavia talking to?” she asked, as Raven sat back down.

“Where?” Raven asked, looking around, following Clarke’s pointed finger she finally spotted them, “no idea, but way to go O, he’s hot.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

“So, wait a minute,” Octavia said, stopping Lincoln mid-sentence, “Clarke doesn’t remember meeting Lexa?”

“Or me, or Anya…” Lincoln said with a nod.

“Who the hell thought that was a good idea?” Octavia asked.

“It’s complicated, Octavia.” Lincoln replied.

“I get that it’s complicated,” Octavia said, “but you couldn’t have let me know any of this before I suggested meeting here for drinks?”

“I didn’t have chance,” Lincoln said, “I’ve been busy with Lexa all day at the office, it honestly may have slipped my mind, I’m sorry.”

“This is going to get so much more complicated than it already is.” Octavia groaned as she rolled her eyes, “now I’m the one with the Vampire secret… this is fucked up.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

Lexa stood in the office which was above the main floor of Polaris, she hadn’t had any idea that her parents owned so many businesses, though it shouldn’t have surprised her. She walked out of the office and out onto the small balcony, leaning her arms on the rail she looked out over the sea of humans enjoying the drinks and the music. She knew that amongst those humans were a healthy number of her own kind. The club was separated into two very different sections, humans and Vampires. The part of the club which was for the Vampires was so very different to the human section. It had its own kind of ‘entertainment’ and it wasn’t something that Lexa was entirely comfortable with, but as long as the rules were followed and any humans who found themselves in that part of the club knew exactly what it was, there wasn’t really anything she could do.

As she was looking out over the club, her eyes drifted towards one of the booths. Clarke. She shook her head, she’d seen the blonde girl everywhere she looked, so she figured it was just her brain making her see things. As she looked again she realised it wasn’t her brain at all, and Clarke really was there. Her eyes stayed focused on Clarke as she felt an undeniable hunger build in her chest. It wasn’t a simple hunger though, it wasn’t something that blood alone would solve.

“Everything okay?” Anya asked as she walked out next to Lexa on the small balcony.

“Everything is fine.” Lexa said, as she walked back into the office.

Anya looked over in the direction that Lexa had been looking and saw that everything wasn’t fine, it wasn’t fine at all.

 

x-x-x-x

 

While Raven and Octavia enjoyed the alcohol, Clarke hadn’t been able to fight the feeling that someone had been watching her. She excused herself from her friends and went to the bathroom, she figured splashing her face with cold water would help. As she walked in the direction of the bathroom she noticed a group of guys walking down the hallway, disappearing behind another door. On the door she saw a sign that said ‘members only’. To say she was curious about what was beyond that door was an understatement. Her feet started to walk her in that direction.

“Are you lost?” A woman asked, stepping out from the shadows in the hallway.

“Bathroom.” Clarke replied, her heart racing as the woman had startled her.

“Back down the hallway,” the woman said, “second door on the right.”

“Have we met?” Clarke asked, her eyes narrowed a little as she looked at the woman who looked very familiar.

“No.” the woman said, shaking her head.

“You look really…” Clarke started to say.

“We’ve never met.” The woman said, interrupting Clarke.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Anya was finding it so hard not to be honest with Clarke, but she also knew that one piece of the puzzle falling back into place would put everything else in jeopardy as well. She couldn’t stop the roll of her eyes as Raven walked up behind Clarke.

“Who is your super attractive friend, Griff?” Raven asked, throwing her arm around Clarke’s shoulder.

“Excuse me.” Anya said, turning and walking back towards the door that lead to the stairs which went up to the office.

“Members only…” Raven said, reading the sign from the door at the end of the hallway, “is that like some kind of strip club or something?”

“No,” Anya said, stopping and turning around, “it isn’t.”

“So, what is it?” Raven asked, a smug little smile on her lips as she looked at Anya, the smile falling a little as she came to the same conclusion that Clarke had, “you look really familiar… We haven’t slept together have we?”

“You’re not my type.” Anya replied, fighting to keep the smirk off her lips.

“What is your type?” Raven asked, dropping her arm from around Clarke’s shoulder as she stepped closer to Anya.

“I’m going to the bathroom.” Clarke said, rolling her eyes at her friend.

“Sure thing, Clarkey.” Raven said, waving her off, her eyes fixed on Anya, “so, come on hot stuff, what is your type?”

“Hot stuff?” Anya asked, “does that ever actually work?”

“It’s been known to, on occasion.” Raven replied.

“Well, hot stuff,” Anya said, leaning a little closer to Raven, “you’re not nearly as attractive as you think you are.”

With that Anya turned on her heel and walked back upstairs.

“She’s into me.” Raven said with a smirk, before she followed Clarke to the bathroom.

When Anya made it back upstairs, Lexa was gone.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure that I like this chapter, it seems to be a bit all over the place, but I decided to post it and see what you all think. Drop me a comment and let me know if it needs to be rewritten or not.

 

 

Anya hadn’t seen Lexa since she left the club, she had no idea where she’d gone, so to say she was surprised to see Lexa sitting behind the desk in her office the following day would be an understatement.

“Where did you go last night?” Anya asked as she walked into the office.

“Home.” Lexa replied, “I needed to be alone.”

Anya had known that Lexa left because Clarke was there, she had told her the night she had taken over as leader of their Vampire coven that she would regret the decision that she made where Clarke was concerned, but she knew that Lexa still wouldn’t admit it had been a mistake.

Lexa still hadn’t looked at her since she walked into the office, she was too busy reading whatever it was that was sitting on her desk.

“What has you looking so concerned?” Anya said, her brow furrowed slightly.

“Did you know there was a spate of murders in the city last night?” Lexa asked, finally looking up at her, “7 victims, in a 3 block radius of the club. All the victims were women between 25 and 30 years of age, and they all had tears to their throats.”

“I didn’t know that, no.” Anya said, shaking her head as she sat down in the chair, “I’m assuming they have no leads.”

“Of course not,” Lexa said, “one reporter even went so far as to claim ‘wild animal attacks’.”

“A wild animal that only attacks the throat…” Anya said, rolling her eyes.

“Also known as a Vampire.” Lexa said, shaking her head as she stood up, “I want to know who it was.”

“Lexa, this isn’t your concern.” Anya said.

“But it is,” Lexa said, turning to look at Anya, “this might have been something that my mother would have stood for, but I won’t. I took out my mother to stop things like this from happening, this is my city, Anya, I won’t have mortals openly killed on the streets.”

“Okay,” Anya said, nodding as she stood up and walked towards the door, “I’ll have someone look into it.”

“Thank you.” Lexa replied.

 

x-x-x-x-x-x

 

Clarke had the day off work, so she had spent her morning cleaning the apartment that she shared with Raven. She loved Raven, she really did, but what she didn’t like too much was the mess that trailed after her. But that was just Raven, nothing was ever going to change that, no matter how much Clarke wanted it to.

Once she had cleaned everything she sat down on the sofa with her sketch book, the local news channel playing on the television running the same story that it had all morning. The murders that had happened down town. They still had no leads and no suspects. While she listened to the reporter repeat, yet again, the warning for women in the down town area to remain aware of their surroundings, she started to draw.

She hadn’t had a plan of what she wanted to draw, so she had just let the pencil flow across the page. Her brow furrowed slightly as she really looked at what she had drawn, eyes. Eyes that were for some reason very familiar to her, but she couldn’t put her finger on why. As she continued to draw she saw the face take shape.

Clarke had no idea how much time had passed while she was drawing, but she couldn’t help but jump a little when the front door opened and Raven walked in.

“Honey,” Raven said dramatically, “I’m home.”

Clarke huffed out a laugh and shook her head at her best friends theatrics.

“I didn’t know you were drawing again,” Raven said as she walked into the living room and over to the sofa where Clarke was sitting, “who’s the hottie?”

“No idea,” Clarke said, shaking her head, “though I am pretty sure that I had a dream about her… I think.”

“Maybe you met her that night we went out,” Raven said, dropping down onto the sofa, “you know, the night neither of us can remember.”

“I’m pretty sure I’d remember if I met someone like her.” Clarke said with a sigh, “I don’t know, maybe she doesn’t actually exist.”

“It’s always possible,” Raven said with a shrug, “oh, before I forget, I ran into your mom earlier, she said something about stopping by later after her shift at the hospital.”

“Why?” Clarke asked.

“Something about this new blood product that is about to hit the market.” Raven replied, “She seems pretty excited about it.”

 

x-x-x-x-x

 

As Lexa and Aden walked into the underground lab, Lexa could sense the nervousness and even fear in some cases as people looked up at her from what they were working on. She could also smell blood, which would have been a problem if she hadn’t fed before they left the office. She didn’t really understand why, but since the last night that she saw Clarke, she hadn’t managed to not still feel hungry after feeding.

Anya had suggested that she feed from a willing volunteer, but she just couldn’t do it, which had caused Aden to joke about how she was a defective Vampire. She knew she was going to have to talk to Nyko about it, it might have something to do with the bond she shared with Clarke.

“Are you doing okay?” Aden said, as he glanced at Lexa.

“Yes.” Lexa replied with a small nod, “just thinking.”

“That’s dangerous.” Aden said, flashing her a grin.

She really had missed having him around. In many ways Aden was still like a child, even though he wasn’t really a child any longer. To the average person who looked at him Aden would appear to be a 12 year old boy, and there were still some aspects of that which remained in his personality. She remembered the way her mother had acted when her father turned Aden, he did it to save the boys life after he had been attacked one night, but there were strict laws about turning children.

Lexa always thought the idea of a child Vampire was a creepy one, the very thought of a small innocent looking child with blood spilling from their mouth was something that would probably cause nightmares amongst mortals. There were laws against it because of the problems that it would cause. A child sees everything as a game, so if a child Vampire started killing people they wouldn’t understand that it’s something they shouldn’t do. There was a story that Lexa had heard back when she had first been turned, a small group of children had once wiped out an entire village of people in one night, because they were playing a game.

Aden was different though and had taken to learning very easily, and he also understood the damage he could do as a Vampire, the strength that now flowed through him.

Lexa was once again snapped out of her thoughts as Aden opened another door and motioned for her to walk in first.

“Lexa, this is our head scientist Doctor Dalton,” Aden said, “Doctor, this is Lexa.”

“I heard there had been a… change in leadership,” the Dr said as she stood up from behind her desk, holding her hand out to Lexa, who shook it, “Aden tells me that you’re interested in marketing the synthetic blood.”

“I am,” Lexa replied with a nod, “I know my mother had thoughts about that too.”

“She did,” the woman replied, “though her reasons were a lot more selfish than yours appear to be.”

“I had a… friend,” Lexa said, her brows furrowing ever so slightly when she thought about Clarke, “she’s a doctor. She told me that sometimes they have trouble storing enough blood if they have a slow month with blood donations.”

“We’re lucky that we have blood stores at all,” the doctor said, “some countries just don’t do that.”

“I know that my mother wanted to market this as a product purely for Vampires,” Lexa said, “but I want to do more than that with it, Doctor Dalton, I want this to ensure that blood shortages in hospitals are a thing of the past. Can we do that?”

“Please,” the doctor said, “call me Becca, and yes, I believe we can do that. We have been working for many years to get this right. Synthetic blood in itself isn’t a new concept, people have been trying to do this for so long, back in the 1600’s when they first found out that blood flows around the body, doctors and scientists considered what they could replace blood with. They already had thoughts about being able to cure illnesses by ‘cleaning’ the blood. Those experiments usually ended in death, painful death.”

“I’m assuming that doesn’t happen now.” Lexa replied.

“No,” Becca said, shaking her head as a smile played on her lips, “the advancement of science has put an end to those types of experiments. A few years ago this very lab came up with the first viable synthetic blood substitute, but testing showed that it wouldn’t stay usable for long, so we still had work to do. We considered simply cloning blood, but at that time the science behind it still had a long way to go, and anything that was cloned would break down quickly, so that also wasn’t an option. I don’t want to bore you with the science, but we actually had a massive breakthrough just last month.”

“Mother didn’t mention that.” Aden said.

“That’s because she didn’t know,” Becca said as she looked at Aden, “you remember what happened the last time we had a breakthrough, it wasn’t big enough for her and she decided to get rid of half of my team as encouragement to do better.”

“Get rid of?” Lexa asked.

“Nobody has heard from any of them since.” Becca replied.

“She had them killed.” Lexa said, shaking her head.

“That would be my thoughts, yes.” Becca said, “we didn’t want to…”

“Nobody here is in any danger of that happening again,” Lexa assured her, “no matter how small the breakthrough you’ve had.”

“It’s not a small breakthrough,” Becca said with a smile, “we’ve done it.”

 

x-x-x-x-x

 

“Isn’t this still technically science fiction?” Clarke asked her mother, her brows furrowed as she read through the report her mother had given her.

“No,” Abby said, shaking her head, “I’ve looked at all the numbers that they’ve sent, all the trials that they’ve completed, it all points to this being actually do able.”

“Synthetic blood,” Clarke said, shaking her head, “I don’t…”

“It’s happening, Clarke,” Abby said with a smile, “we won’t have to worry about running out of blood during an emergency.”

“I didn’t think Woods Incorporated were in the medical market.” Clarke said.

“They’re branching out,” Abby replied, “from what I understand the daughter has taken over the company and rather than everything now being for the highest bidder she seems to want to make it available to everyone.”

 

x-x-x-x-x

 

Anya had spent most of the day looking through CCTV footage from around the city, looking to see if she could find out who was responsible for the murders the previous night. She was concentrating on the footage and hadn’t heard the door open.

“There,” Lexa said, leaning over her shoulder and pointing to an area towards the top of the screen, “rewind it 10 seconds back…”

Anya did as Lexa said and sure enough they could see a woman getting dragged into an alleyway, the person doing the dragging couldn’t be seen on the camera though.

“That wasn’t a wild animal.” Anya said, looking back at Lexa.

“No,” Lexa said, shaking her head, “that was a Vampire.”

 

x-x-x-x-x

 

**Beep…Beep...Beep…**

 

The steady beeping sound reached through the cloudiness in Clarke’s mind, causing her to groan as she tried to open her eyes. Once her eyes had adjusted to the light she looked around her and saw that she was a hospital bed.

“What happened…” she said to herself.

“We were hoping you could tell us.” Raven said, from where she sat at the other side of the bed that Clarke was in, “you went out for a walk to clear your head last night, then your mom gets a phone call, something about you being attacked or something.”

Clarke furrowed her brow as she thought about what had happened.

 

_Pain, something tearing at her neck as her back was pushed into the cold brickwall behind her, more pain. Green eyes._

“ _You…” Clarke gasped, the woman in front of her pushing Clarke’s own hand over the wound on her neck._

“ _Keep pressure on it.” the woman said._

_Clarke once again tried to speak, wanting to know who the woman was, and what the hell had just happened. The woman in front of her, the one from her dream, was looking between Clarke and another woman who was groaning in a heap against the opposite wall of the alleyway. Clarke had been attacked, dragged down an alleyway so hard and fast that she hadn’t even seen the woman who attacked her._

_Clarke could see the thoughts turning in her rescuers mind about what to do next. The woman against the opposite wall started to move. Clarke flinched as she heard a low threatening sound that sounded almost like a growl leave the woman in front of her as she moved herself between Clarke and her attacker. In the dim light of the alleyway she could see blood around the mouth of her attacker, her blood if the pain in her neck was any indication. As her rescuer turned and looked at her once again, Clarke was sure that the blood loss was starting to effect her. Fangs, the woman had fangs._

_Another growl left the woman’s throat as the woman who had attacked Clarke got up and fled. Rather than run after her, which Clarke could see was what her rescuer wanted to do, she turned back to Clarke, her face completely free of the fangs that Clarke was sure she had seen just seconds before._

“ _I’m going to get you some help.” The woman said, taking her phone out of her inside pocket._

“ _I… I know you.” Clarke said._

_She was sure she could see a flash of pain pass across the woman’s eyes as she looked at Clarke before putting the phone to hear ear and asking for an ambulance._

“ _I… you…” Clarke said, struggling to talk._

“ _You’re going to be okay,” the woman said, taking off her jacket and putting it down next to Clarke before she helped Clarke lay down, “help is coming.”_

“ _Who...” Clarke said, before darkness started to fill her senses._

“ _You’re going to be okay, Clarke.” was the last thing she remembered hearing._

 

“The woman from my dream…” Clarke said as she looked at Raven.

“She’s the one who did this?” Raven asked.

“No,” Clarke said, shaking her head a little, wincing in pain as she felt the sutures on her neck start to pull, “no, she helped me.”

“The police said that whoever called the ambulance waited around till they got there, made sure you were going to be okay, then literally vanished.” Raven said with a nod, “nobody saw where she went. Did she tell you her name?”

“No.” Clarke said, her head falling back onto the pillow, “but she knew my name.”

 

x-x-x-x-x

 

“What were you even doing there?” Anya asked as she paced in front of the fire of the library where Lexa was sitting.

“I had a bad feeling that something was going to happen,” Lexa replied, shaking her head, “and I was right, but too late.”

“You weren’t too late, Lexa, Clarke is alive because of you.” Anya said, “did you get a good look at whoever it was who attacked her?”

“She was at the coven meeting,” Lexa said with a nod, “one of Nia’s people.”

“Then it’s started…” Anya said, “we need to call the coven together.”


End file.
